1/4 ??? 2018/11/09(Fri)16:48 No. 910106 ID: 8a614b
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~Paraspacial noise increasing. Estimate 87% probability of high-activity PSI-user within 5 units.~
~Confirmed. Communications likely compromised. Remember, target is a tier 9 PSI-user, do not engage directly. Repeat, do not engage directly.~
~Director, this is Streamwaver 99, I've located an intent signature, I'm proceeding to investigate.~
~Streamwaver, do not engage directly! Get out of there--~

2/4 ??? 2018/11/09(Fri)16:48 No. 910107 ID: 8a614b
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~You really should have learned to follow orders.~
~Voidsong! Oh it's just you. Wait, it's you--~
~Yes.~

3/4 Voidsong 2018/11/09(Fri)16:48 No. 910108 ID: 8a614b
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~It's me. Goodnight, child.~
Clear mind. Empty soul. Realign to configuration seven. Find the binding tether. Grasp it.
~Wait WAIT NO PLEASE I SURRENDER--~
Unmake.

SPLORCH

4/4 Voidsong 2018/11/09(Fri)16:49 No. 910109 ID: 8a614b
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Well, this is an odd turn of events. Welcome back.
How did you end up here, parasite? At my beck and call? As a spy? Outside of your control?
You drift like paraspacial flotsam, at the mercy of the eddies and tides of raw consciousness.
Well, watch if you wish, and say your piece, but I am busy.
I may deign to answer questions if you feel so bold as to ask them!

...I got blood everywhere. That's not good for keeping a low profile.
I need to go find the cleansing acid. You may as well come with me while I search for it.

Oh, and I am aware of your intent, salikai-aider. I don't know what you are, or what your purpose here is, but I can feel at least some part of you would see me dead sooner than later.
Not that it matters.
I've faced greater horrors from paraspace than you could even conceive of.
The worst thing you could do to me is give me bad advice. Hahaha!

Oh, all this blood on me? Not mine.

We know.

Hey voidsong, here's a question. How were you evidently betrayed by someone else in the kiter empire?

Everyone always says we are the lesser horrors but all those big guys have to sleep 95% of the time and honestly never get around to destroying much. Plus they all have glaring weaknesses to exploit and get banished constantly.

But not us! We cant be destroyed or banished for long. We only show up at the most critical moments and you wont be able to avoid thinking about our advice. Every day from here until your end you will wonder what your future would have been like if we had just ignored you.

Anyways what you blowin up people for?

>The worst thing you could do to me is give me bad advice. Hahaha!
No, the worst thing we could do would be to ignore you and shame the underwriter of your reality until it despairs and unmakes your existence utterly.

The worst thing you could do to us is to speak to us, which you've already done.

>Oh, all this blood on me? Not mine.
It's not your blood, but it is your blood, isn't it?

>>910109
We were following that guy you exploded. Now we're stuck with you. Also, your biological offspring stole an intergalactic scoutship and crashed in another galaxy.

I'm sure you don't care but it's a thing. Either way, try wiggling your appendages more. You might blend in.

>>910109
Where exactly are you right now? It’s pitch black all around you.

>Oh, all this blood on me? Not mine.
we saw... kinda surprised you didn't try something like this on our Salikai friend.

Also why we're here... don't know, we just kinda jump around from time to time. You seem to be doing fine for yourself.

>would see me dead sooner than later.
Only if you would detriment the Salikai. The survival and success of Sisirri is our primary (if arbitrary) objective in this instance.

Beyond that, you're neat.

Also, why call us a parasite? We gain no sustenance from this place or the beings in it. Our para-spacial existence is merely a manifestation of a greater whole. To whisper and watch merely brings us joy. We are simple creatures.

Is there some reason that they tried to surrender? Nothing I have seen of Team Kiter suggests that surrender is likely to achieve much or be accepted by their peers.
Can you recover any of their cybernetics? Could be valuable data on it...

>I got blood everywhere
You look like you tried to enter a wet t-shirt contest naked.

>The worst thing you could do to me is give me bad advice
Actually, that depends on whether or not you have an addiction to mentally snorting reclaimer vat refuse.

We are holding back on the crazy.

Also your frankenumono bred some puppies. Don't @#$%ing touch them or we'll stop holding back.

>Ask your questions, worm
So, how many scouts have you splorched so far? And what do you use to cause exploding cancer?
Why are you not back at your own secret base building disposable drones to do all your scavenging?
What do you have at your disposal and how thoroughly can it be applied to the annihilation of your enemies?
Is P=NP?
How close are you to building a lesbian sex-bot?

>What do
Take Streamweaver99's augments, cannibalize what you can for easily-contained parts, go find more parts to build better computers for your base. Simple enough.

Are... Are you making gang-signs at us?

>>910276
Those puppies are a menace. The things breed like rabbits and go all murder-gestalt over spilt milk. I'd tell you to nuke them from orbit, but I hear that the ears are delicious. Perhaps you should try barbecue?

>>910109
Want you dead? Voidsong, a majority advised Sisirri to spare your life during your confrontation.

It may or may not interest you to know that one of our myriad hostforms is in contact with your son.

We could help. If you let us.

You told 1045 not to let the Mistake facility hand you over. Why are they going to have the choice to hand you over or not? Gonna hide in there, or what?

1/8 Voidsong 2018/11/29(Thu)17:17 No. 912295 ID: 8a614b
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>why blow up people
A neno fi even seeing me for long enough to send a message at the speed of thought will have more swarming on me in moments.
A lapse in attention and they might even be able to push me into paraspace. I'm spending more attention than you might understand keeping myself anchored.

>how blow up people
This particular technique is a combination of the unravelling thread and the explosion from within. Find a paraspacial sensitive's connection to paraspace, pull it into paraspace, pull it into realspace, violently jerk the connection as hard as you can while exerting force of will upon the target. Part of the target will be forced into raw paraspace and rapidly forced back into realspace. If done quickly enough, this can force part of the target to occupy the same physical space as itself in microfractures across its entire body. The coup de grace, an explosion of force focused to originate from the centre of mass.
The target does not even process what is happening to them before they cease processing altogether if you do it correctly.

Both of these techniques usually take about two minutes of full concentration for advanced neno fi. I did it in two seconds.
I'm not classified as a tier 9 paraspacial intent manipulator for nothing.

>why not blow up Sisirri
I wanted her intact and alive.
...also trying to synchronise to the mentality of a drunk alien is a poor tactical decision.

>how were you betrayed
How? Gol was waiting for any excuse to hunt me down like a pest animal. My abrupt departure was that excuse.
I'd barely left my spire before the kill order was sent.

>where are you
Backup base, a damaged spire abandoned after some sort of Mistake weapon was used on it. The sublayers are still intact.
This is basically the second or third place most people would think to look, but...

>gang-signs
Mnenomic digit configurations are one of many vital tools in the arsenal of a terrifyingly capable paraspacial manipulator.
When thought is power, memory is ammunition.

>take augments
Garbage.

>why did they try to surrender
Garbage.

>is P=NP
When accounting for paraspacial calculation, the question is not even wrong.

>how close to building a lesbian sex-bot
If I wanted one, I'd have one.

>neumono puppies
...Good work, 1045!

>son
You must be confused, because I don't have a son.

Okay, forget it, I can't find the cleansing acid. I'll just leave the bloodstains as a warning.

2/8 Voidsong 2018/11/29(Thu)17:18 No. 912296 ID: 8a614b
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One more thing to sort out, though.

These defective wastes of organs are Novaswimmer and Wavebreaker.
I'm using them as paraspacial amplifiers.

Say hi to-- actually, wait, no, don't acknowledge them. They ceased to be people when they crossed me.

"Voidsong, please, I'll do anything, anything, don't hurt me!"
"Voidsong! Voidsong why! Why are you doing this?! You saved me from the recyclers! I don't understand!!"

"Shut up," I mutter, and place my hands on their heads as they go catatonic from the neural feedback of me asserting my paraspacial will over their consciousnesses.
Yes. Not a significant boost, but their paraspacial intent is added to my own. Enough for me to pierce the veil wider and gain greater awareness of my surroundings.

Reach out, and, yes, five scouts, neno fi all of them. Terrible composition for an advance team.

3/8 Voidsong 2018/11/29(Thu)17:18 No. 912297 ID: 8a614b
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The two neno fi I'm touching convulse as I force their intent alongside my own into each scout, one at a time repeating the previous action.
Unmake. Unmake. Unmake. Unmake. Unmake.

Zero scouts. Gol should have sent neburi, the idiot.

I let go of my two spare batteries, who are not tier 9 manipulators and are suffering the backlash of being forced to keep up at my level. They pant and whine and groan in pain.

I turn around, to see a stealth neburi with a weapon outstretched towards me.
Ah. I guess Gol did send neburi. I can't unmake neburi, they don't have paraspacial connections nearly as strong as neno fi.

I put my arms up. The stealth neburi aims her shot.

"Well, you have me where you want me. What do you want?"
"Command is execution--"

I fling a boulder at her so fast the fungal wall covering rips with an audible squelch when she crashes into it.
While she's dazed I pull the boulder back and throw it into her a few more times until the moving stops.
One day the rank and file will learn that shoot on sight means shoot on sight but until then I'm safe from all harm.

"Stran, help us, please, help us!" moans one of the two batteries, as though pleas to indifferent alien forces will somehow change things.

So, what can you tell me about the secrets of the Mistake facility, flotsam? You've seen inside it more than I have--

Hm, nope, there's more coming. I need my full attention. Goodbye, flotsam!

4/8 Sisirri 2018/11/29(Thu)17:19 No. 912298 ID: 8a614b
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It's been about three days since the gate was opened. Enough time to recover, to answer questions, to get blocker symbiotes on neumono. Enough time to apologise to the others in a sincere manner for my foolishness. Our new pomi guest is... well, still in recovery. The hastily installed cybernetics were removed with oversight from myself, Aza and Tirzi, with Ekasarra providing some assistance too. Together, we managed to cobble enough expertise to remove them hopefully without any permanent damage.

Also, enough time for them to finally read my report on the lower levels. Apparently, some of them saw a glowing light with a faint voice, but they couldn't understand what it tried to say before it faded away. Aza loses drone reception if he tries to send any drones down there. They asked if I could record my next trip down.

I asked Ku for a map of the entire facility. He said something about discrepancies in the existing data and that a bad misleading map is worse than no map, but it feels like he's trying to cover up some sort of mistake, or something else he's not telling me about. I asked if he had a map of the lower levels of the original facility, and he sighed and said the facility back home didn't even have anything more sophisticated than a basement and a server room.

More immediately, I found new specifications for an upgraded, improved prosthetic eye in the data extracted from Ekasarra's cybernetics. Based upon the model I already had, but with some compelling changes, such as multiple failsafes and safeguards against intrusion. A lot of references to something called "black ice" I've never come across before. Well, I mean, I understand the concepts but the idea of some sort of safeguard that retaliates with so much force it can harm whatever's connected... I didn't think such technology was possible. Apparently, my mother found out it existed the hard way trying to peer into something Imperium wasn't telling her about.

And, rather than take temporary, perhaps even permanent neurological damage as a warning sign, she considered it a challenge and decided to reverse engineer the setup. My mother was apparently simultaneously brilliant and incredibly foolish. So, I guess it runs in the family.

The downside is, of course, that all of this technology is based upon design principles either given by or taken from Imperium. However, a few conversations with Ku and Aza later, and I think I made the appropriate revisions to the design. Then I spent a solid day doing nothing but putting it together from a mixture of spare drone parts and some custom made parts in Aza's workshop.

Then I asked Aza and Tirzi to help me install the finished product, and it feels natural. The optical sensors are higher resolution than the previous one, and I've custom tailored the mind machine interfaces so I can easily, easily cycle through whatever data overlays I want without having to jump through mental hoops and menu metaphors.

Oh and those three arkots my former elites lost still haven't been found. They're still trying to find them, coming back to the large xenobiology lab every night to report back, eat and sleep. I've made it clear that I don't care if they find them alive or not, they're not getting their ranks reinstated until I see the arkots or their bodies.

5/8 Sisirri 2018/11/29(Thu)17:19 No. 912300 ID: 8a614b
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And now, after telling the others where I'm going this time, I'm heading back down to the sublevel.
With complete control over my new cybernetic eye and its hardware and software, I figured writing a client to their VoxNet system was a wise idea.
So, now I'm connected to it and can bring up the message feed and write to it with a mere thought.
I'm also streaming my visual input too.

It's just... everything is so much easier this way. I feel enhanced. I'm wary, though. The rush of enhancement feels like it could be addictive.

Addiction. I never thought about it that way. I didn't think that my mother might have ended up how she did even without Imperium's influence just from trying to recapture the rush of new sensation and capability.
Salikai strive for self-improvement, and this is objectively improvement on what I was before, but... I need to remain grounded.
Whatever happens, my other eye will stay flesh and blood.


> LessEdgyThanYou [Tirzi]: Heading on your expedition now? Good luck, and please try to come back unharmed this time. It's been nice doing my actual job and not triage for a couple days.
> CybLux [Aza]: being careful sisirri, not sure how many drones being lost to perilous deadzone
> 1045 [Prototype 1045]: I can't even head down there or I start getting really bad... well, have you ever had a headache over your entire body? That.
> Machinist [Sisirri]: I will be fine.
> LessEdgyThanYou: Yeah okay I'll get the tub ready.
> Machinist: Dismissing VoxNet for now. I need more concentration.

6/8 Sisirri 2018/11/29(Thu)17:20 No. 912301 ID: 8a614b
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I pause, and consider.


> Machinist: Having some problems with signal. Switching to recording. I'll give you the recording when I get back.
> CybLux: was wondering when problems happening. be safe, sisirri


I told them about most of what I saw, but not one key detail. Not the reason I came back down.

"Will."

~i have awaited your return,~ chimes a shining mote of light as it coalesces in front of me. ~you are the reason i continue to exist, salikai.~

"Take me to the salikai."
~the salikai's chosen may present an obstacle, but i believe i have located an alternate route to the prison block via maintenance walkways they are unaware of.~
I'm not going to be afraid of some tampered arkots.
"Let us continue."
~let us hope the lessons on hubris my creator tried to impart upon you one day cohere,~ chimes the wisp.
"What are you trying to say?"
~nothing that can be adequately said,~ it glimmers. ~let us go forth down this path you have chosen.~

7/8 Sisirri 2018/11/29(Thu)17:21 No. 912302 ID: 8a614b
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I walk with the wisp through winding foggy corridors, and realise after what feels like ten minutes of walking that my VoxNet connection has died.

"I can't connect to the servers up above. What's causing this?"
~there is shielding in place to prevent hostile signals intruding upon this place. it also prevents leaking any signals from within to the outside world.~
"Can it be disabled?"
~i am not authorised to disable anything that could cause harm to this place. i am a guide, not an overseer.~
"Can you at least proxy my connection or something?"
~i am a guide, not a connection nexus.~
"Well, no offense meant."
~offense?~
"Never mind."

We finally start to approach a room. Much like the room housing Lastborn, it is large, spherical, and... lined with rows and rows of solid, opaque capsules.

~current available prisoner manifest. 10145, servitor, 18356 days in containment stasis. 10182, species unidentified, 3402 days in containment stasis. 10205, salikai, 103 days in containment stasis.~
"10205 is the only one of those I'm interested in." I pause. Consider opportunities, Sisirri. Keep all options open. "Tell me about the other two, though."
~10145 is a servitor of the creators, who willingly entered containment intending to sleep through a century. it will likely not appreciate being freed prematurely.~
"And the other?"
~10182. no records available, similar arrival to the salikai. activation of a prisoner retrieval pod. species unidentified. unusual biomechanical composition. microcellular structure suggests engineered origin.~

Not that it matters. There's only one "prisoner" I'm interested in right now.

8/8 Sisirri 2018/11/29(Thu)17:22 No. 912303 ID: 8a614b
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As I walk in, the capsules shift in rows and columns like some sort of sliding puzzle, until a specific pod is inexplicably drawn closer to the centre of the room.
I don't see any mechanism for how it moves. It just floats over.

It's Kitsiksu in the pod, for definite.

I'm overcome with a mixture of emotions I'm having trouble understanding. Confusion, doubt, uncertainty, dread, elation, fear, suspicion, guilt, devastation, it's... it's all too much.
I raise a shaking claw up to the pod and tap it as though it might not be real.
It's real.

~the thawing process requires authorisation of prisoner release. as a guide process, i have this authorisation. however, i wish to wait for your confirmation. do you want this salikai released?~

My head is swimming and I feel faint.
I specifically came down here to do this and now I'm suddenly panicking about whether this idea is a good idea or not.

Do I really want Kitsiksu released? Am I ready for what might happen? I don't even know what might happen.

You don't know what will happen. How he will react. How you will react. If this is a good idea or if it will bring disaster.

But its worth the risk to maybe save a good friend.

Do it regardless of the risk.

(do check him over extensively for cybernetic back doors and traps before you leave the safety of this signal dead zone though)

>>912303
Yea lol

Have you brought this up with the others? They will react negatively if you release him without consultation, but you can report the facts in such a way that they will permit it, you're the only observer here so you can portray the facts in your favour.

I would go back to where you have signal, and report that you have found what appears to be a stasis pod room (Prisoner has negative connotations) with occupied pods. Report the other two accurately, but for Kitsiksu stress that he is someone you know and trust (at least as far as trust goes for salikai), rather than just a salikai. While the neumono may be sceptical, the other aliens would consider denying you access to a friend to be callous.

It may be that these prisoner retrieval pods are similar to the transporter artefact you arrived here in, and that Kitsiksu activated it either accidentally or deliberately to escape Imperium, which would explain why he is here. You could use that hypothesis in your argument.

Save your boyfriend, Sisi

>>912298
Did you remember to tell everybody about Imperium‘s plague targeting psi-sensitive species this time? Or did you forget to tell them again?

>>912303
Save him.

The Neumono may not appreciate having another Salikai around, but you managed to convince most of them to tolerate you, so you can convince them again to tolerate Kitsiksu.

And you’ll also have to convince Kitsiksu to tolerate working with Neumono.

nothing ventured nothing gained... going to be awkward telling everyone else though that you found a friend.

...wonder if he still wants to have kids with you after all this time?

>I've made it clear that I don't care if they find them alive or not, they're not getting their ranks reinstated until I see the arkots or their bodies.
So... when you do see bodies you're going to test them to make sure they're the right bodies, and they didn't get frustrated and murder some of the non-missing arkots, right?

>It's just... everything is so much easier this way. I feel enhanced. I'm wary, though. The rush of enhancement feels like it could be addictive.
Cybernetics: booze for salikai.

>I told them about most of what I saw, but not one key detail. Not the reason I came back down.
See that's a big problem. Unless you plan on keeping your boy-toy in the basement, they're going to find out, and your hiding it will only exacerbate the problems.

>Do I really want Kitsiksu released? Am I ready for what might happen? I don't even know what might happen.
Okay, let's go over the ways this could go wrong.

What happens if he's been injured and the suspended animation is keeping him alive? You have no medical equipment, no medic, and no assistance to transport him to medbay, assuming he cooperated.

Kitssiksu is a salikai, who was almost killed. He may be justifiably paranoid, or afraid, or hysterical, etc. Your lost contact with him, and your memory is damaged. Your personal passwords may not be enough to put him at ease and get him to trust you or cooperate. And you have no way to defend yourself if he reacts violently, or contain him if he tries to escape. You don't have any backup, or immediate means to corroborate what you tell him.

When you bring him back, you're immediately going to throw your social group into disarray again, at the same time introducing a new salikai who can exploit that chaos.

So how about you try again after talking this through with your allies? Don't unseal him now, gather whatever medical (or other) data from the pods to report back with and analyze.

Don't unseal Kitsiksu.

You really ought to have mentioned this to someone. Not the neumono, obviously, but turning up with a random salikai might make the other scientists suspicious, and sneaking one around without telling them would definitely do so. Not to mention having a second opinion to monitor for external influences. Still, what's done is done.

Be mindful of his mental state. He will probably be paranoid. He will seek localised supremacy of his environment and that would result in conflict with the scientists and extreme conflict with the neuomono, which the ludicrously powerful experiment might side with due to recent intimacy that you failed to council caution against. There must be strict rules impressed upon him. No ultimatums, no sieges or occupations. No armed shows of force nor any form of deployment of empathic assault. We are in an alliance with neumono against something much worse than them and that alliance will be respected. If he doesn't like that then he will have to find his own way to survive the empire that is more genocidal and has more crazy abilities than every neumono hive and adversarial salikai group combined. Also you are in conflict with a hostile individual who can simultaneously make war against multiple worlds in person who you aren't going to go into detail about because they like mind warping and could have implanted mental triggers.
On that note, look into restraints. He really might be a plant by imperium. Imperium is the only one known to have technology to get here, and Kitsiksu is obvious bait. That you didn't mention him to the others is further evidence that you are still compromised and going from Imperium-mine to Imperium-mine with gleeful compunction. Try to get him examined prior to letting him reestablish dominance over his minions, who might in turn be compromised(or arkot-addled) into hostility.

Paranoia can easily go to far, but with this level of subterfuge, pretty much everything should be independently vetted at least once before leaving quarantine...

>>912303
Request he be released in a state of temporary unconsciousness so that he can be transported to medical first.

>>912300
Like you said before, it's a matter of earning your abilities and powers. Augment yourself any way you want, but be sure to practice and develop any augmentations you previously installed before you upgrade so they won't get hacked, subverted, or otherwise ripped out and force fed back like you did to Voidsong.

>>912301
We are who we are, Will. If we weren't, why shouldn't we just lay down and die? Oh wait, that's what happened to your creators isn't it.

>10145
They can sleep when this place isn't on the verge of Kiter/Imperium domination. Besides, all the fun, life-prolonging stuff is happening right now!

>10182
Do some basic analysis, then discuss with your team. Might be a super-fufa for all you know. Not that it would be a bad thing to... erm.

>Kitsiksu
+ Baby Salikai
- Imperium might have hacked him. For the efficient lolz.

Obviously yes. Together you can check out that unknown species pod. Something of interest maybe?
Also you interrupted Will before you confirmed how many were on the manifest. Are there more than three?

Wake him up. You've got all the time in world to make up a proper cover story for his appearance while also ensuring that he also isn't compromised.

Another way you can convince the others is that Kitsiksu is a biology expert. If anyone gets injured, he can help heal them. And considering how many times you’ve almost died, Sisirri, I think it would be best if you have someone that knows Salikai biology the next time you inevitably end up getting severely injured.

Also, Kitsiksu could help with healing the Pomi that’s still recovering from the surgery she went through.

Hey, other thoughts of interest:
First, Imperium probably originated in the Kiter galaxy. This makes Imperium's stated goal of wanting to end the Kiter a plausible one, even if the method is suspect. This would mean Imperium is a remnant from a previous Kiter cycle.
Secondly, Imperium didn't throw you away. He forced you into the pod, to bring you here with that key. He did so in order to get that gate open. Yet he was unable to manipulate you into stepping through the gate; the logic he used had no chance of working, even. I mean obviously you'd be super pissed at him for everything he's done to you. Secondly, you never had any interest in genociding neumono, only escaping them. His speech was fake, an attempt to make it LOOK like he wanted you to work with him. He didn't even send your drone back through the portal with the "new designs" in it! I'm starting to wonder if Imperium staged the attack that coincided with the gate opening. Why would he even want you to step through if the base was going to blow up in 5 minutes? Why didn't he send a drone through immediately and drag you in if he wanted you there to shove an implant in your face? So he didn't want you willingly via an honest explanation, or unwillingly via lies or force. He didn't want you there at all.
So if the gate event was not orchestrated for you to step through, it was to allow him access to this facility. Two things came through that gate: the Pomi and the Imperium drone. Did anything aside from your robot go through the gate? Is the gate key still missing? You had it last. I sure hope you didn't throw it through without realizing it.
The Pomi's implant... Your implant was able to control your access to memories, so her memories MUST be compromised. I wouldn't be surprised if the implant forced her to surrender so that she wouldn't be killed. Interrogating the Pomi will surely give you misleading information just because of how the implant fucks with memories and we don't know how long it takes to recover (if it's even possible to fully recover), which means she is actually useless. She smells like trojan horse to me, honestly.
Another thought: Imperium sent that drone through to show you the link between machine and flesh. Your mother turned full cybernetic but that isn't the right path is it? Artificial bodies need not be made like robots. No, they could simply be artificial flesh and bone. An improvement on materials, not structure or function. No security vulnerabilities, just longevity. Perhaps Kitsiksu could help you accomplish that. An expert on robotics cooperating with an expert on biology to make something in between. Is this also something Imperium wants? Heh, you'd think Imperium would be able to make such a body on his own.

Salikai may be special because they are the closest an organic gets to being a robot. Maybe the attempt to infuse eggs with nanomachines was meant to take advantage of this somehow.
Also possible: salikai have no paraspacial ability, but have anti-paraspacial ability. The psi-blocker caps generate this on a basic level, but perhaps Salikai have the potential to use it at a higher level.
It would be useful to ask Voidsong why salikai are special. If anyone knows, it's Voidsong.

>>912344
I don't think that's a good argument. Tirzi seems quite capable.

Wait a minute, both Imperium and your mother kept trying to inject nanites into people. Babies and adults. Why?

Ask for images of 10145 and 10182.
Ask if Kitsiksu has any life threatening conditions.

I can't remember why you didn't come here with help to stabilize him and carry him back, but I assume you have a good reason.

Actually, can you just bring the hover pods containing him and 10182 with you? (No way they'd let you walk out with a servitor)

>>912346
And she’s tired of it. She already said that she’s happy to be doing her actual job instead of triage.

She’ll appreciate having Kitsiksu around, since it means that she’ll have help next time someone gets hurt.

>>912303
Imperium literally just used a lifeform as a carrier to shove component parts somewhere it couldn't get them itself. This place has a trove of data, but is shielded effectively against network connections. Do you really want to risk acting as Imperium's exfil mechanism from an air-gapped system?

I agree that we need to tell the others before making a decision about freeing Kitsiksu. If we are to be seen as valuing this alliance with the rest of the team then we ned to act in good faith toward it, i.e. not making potentially very important decisions without their knowledge and not decieving them

>>912434
Yeah, better safe than sorry.

Make sure you present a good argument on why freeing him will make him a valuable addition to the team!

I hope you have some way of deactivating that fancy new eye of yours fast in the event that kiter electronic warfare specialists or Imperium try to worm their way in.

>salikai, 103 days in containment stasis.

Sisirri, you last heard from him 2 years ago, right? That leaves about 627 day gap, if a 365 day year is used. You should probably ask Will about that before making a decision. While you're at it, ask what stops the bioservitors from freeing him.

>>912347

There's no way to be sure, but if that plan of Imperium's wasn't complete nonsense, I suspect it's related to this objective.
>- PLIABLE CLIENT SPECIES AVAILABLE FOR PROJECT CB80EFA8

>>912434
This. This is as much for his safety as anyone else.

>>912508
Well, the nanites could be part of another objective, or the pathogen is a nanite swarm instead of a bacteria or virus. An anti-paraspacial nanite swarm would make more sense for an AI to come up with than a biological plague, and would be more likely to be effective in practice.

It's possible the nanites were tested on that neumono to make sure they would not harm a host in any way other than to interfere with their paraspacial abilities... but that doesn't explain injecting them into salikai eggs... unless my theory on salikai having anti-paraspacial potential is true? Maybe the swarm requires a salikai powering/controlling it for it to work. That would also explain why Imperium wants Sisirri.

Don't release Kikitsu yet.
Now that you've "officially" found him, you can discuss it with the others first.

Why he is in suspension? If the reason put his or our health in danger upon release more preparations are require. Otherwise, just get this over with.

>>912545
He's in the capsule because he used it as an escape pod.

>>912547
Than just get this over with.

>>912528
No, that objective referred to was for AFTER the successful release of the anti-paraspacial plague. My suspicion is that paraspacial sensitivity in an organism gives it some means to either reject cybernetics/nanites or fight back against their influence. If that obstacle is removed, there is little that can stop Imperium from taking command of all life through implanted devices and maintaining it with implant-on-birth policies. Hence why
>- END OF METASPACIAL MANIPULATION BY ORGANISMS
>-- NO FURTHER SENSITIVES BORN
>-- NO POTENTIAL FOR GREATER SENSITIVITY TO ARISE THROUGH MUTATION
are desirable outcomes, why Imperium seeks the end of the Kiter Empire, rather than ignoring their galaxy (they'd be an existential threat), and why "pliable client species" is used, emphasis on "pliable" and "species". Cherry on top would be an Imperium monopoly of paraspace using technologically emulated paraspacial manipulation.

Again, this assumes the plan isn't fabricated, and there's no evidence to back it up except what we know of Imperium's... personality.

And while we're on nutty theories, all the near-zero odds things happening like Kitsiksu's presence might be the result of the Eternity Shell manipulating probability.v

1/7 Sisirri 2018/12/09(Sun)14:49 No. 913544 ID: 221205
File 154439574823.png - (118.24KB , 800x600 , salq3-13.png )

>did you tell them it was psi-sensitive
Yes! Yes I did! It didn't really change anyone's opinion, Ku just laughed at the idea. At least I can enjoy some iota of schadenfreude when I yell 'I told you so' while half the cosmos dies.

>103 days, discrepancy between that and two years
...I guess... he must have gone elsewhere first? No that makes no sense. I need to ask what happened. Is there a time dilation thing involved in this teleportation nonsense? How many years passed back where I came from? No, focus, Sisirri, focus, one existential crisis at a time.

>tell the others first
...

They might say no.
Maybe they'd be right to say no.

No, I...
I should tell them. Even if I don't ask them, I should tell them.

"Will, I need to contact the other members of the science team, I need signal."
~i will lead you to a non-sensitive area. come with me.~

We walk out of the room as Kitsiksu's pod floats back into the homogenous mass of sealed capsules.
I feel immediate regret gnawing at me. Knowing my luck so far, I probably won't be able to get back here if I leave, or something.

I ask Will about the other prisoners and, sifting through the noise of prisoner numbers and unrecognised species, I get that there are eight prisoners I could choose to release, if I so desired. The remaining cells are empty. While held in the cells, they are in total timeless, ageless stasis, which I am told is an inferior suspension compared to the Eternity Shell which allows for conscious thought in a body otherwise immune to the ravages of time.

For an artificial intelligence designed to try and steer me away from something like the Eternity Shell, it's definitely doing a bad job. Then again I suppose it was just meant to take me to Lastborn and then cease, so I suppose it going a little off script is to be expected when its script ran out days ago.

The prisoners are, as best as I can figure out:
Kitsiksu,
a Warning servitor intending to remain in stasis for 100 years, midway through its deathlike sleep,
an evidentally engineered organism (or machine?) that arrived without warning, like Kitsiksu,
some sort of plant-like animal that also just fell into a pod, apparently,
some sort of animal-like plant that sounds worryingly like a miklik, who was actually sent here while cuffed and gagged inside the pod, but has no criminal record in the system here,
some sort of cold-habitat creature with sophisticated integrated technology, who actually was apprehended by an automated system for "crimes against the memory of the Warning",
the physical manifestation of a paraspacial creature that the Warning couldn't figure out how to destroy,
and, similarly, an unassuming white cube that is apparently the AI and power core of a berserker replicator the Warning couldn't destroy completely.

Some of them might be allies, some of them are definitely a poor choice to try and release.
Most of them are just... flotsam, I suppose, like Kitsiksu. Like me. Strewn across the cosmos after foolishly meddling with the toys of star gods.

There's one more question I have for Will as we walk.

"Why does a research facility have a dedicated prison room with all of these cryogenic self-transporting prisoner pods?"
~this place has seen purpose after purpose over the long ages. the facility began simply as a terraforming monitor station. now, it is a prison, a tomb, a garden, an archive, a bunker, a relay. more beyond that.~

I just nod. Will chimes gently.

~we are here.~

2/7 Sisirri 2018/12/09(Sun)14:49 No. 913545 ID: 221205
File 154439576862.png - (176.77KB , 800x600 , salq3-14.png )

I reach out to the others as soon as I can.

> Machinist: I neglected to mention a few things.
> LessEdgyThanYou: Hi, that was fast. Heading back?
> Machinist: No, just need to confess some things.
> LessEdgyThanYou: ..."confess"?
> saba!: oh boy here we go
> saba!: i was waiting for this
> 1045: Hear her out.
> saba!: i am, wtf, get off my back
> 1045: "wtf"?
> Machinist: Ahem.
> Machinist: I came back down here with a purpose.

I upload a still of Kitsiksu to the network.

> Machinist: There's another salikai down here.
> Machinist: Not a stranger, either. Against all probability, someone important to me in my past.
> Machinist: I don't know how he got here, or why he's here, or anything like that, but I know I can free him.
> Machinist: I don't know if I should, but I want to.
> Machinist: I don't know.
> Machinist: Originally I wanted to let you all know this was my plan, but now I am having second thoughts on this plan, and I know the neumono will not be happy to hear I am considering bringing a second, unknown salikai up to the facility.

The silence is excruciating.

Only three minutes pass but it feels like forever. I can hear the hum of machinery around me and the distant hiss of vapour. Will chimes periodically, endlessly patient.

> LessEdgyThanYou: No, no they won't.
> LessEdgyThanYou: And the last thing we need right now is more fuel for internal strife.
> LessEdgyThanYou: But I can't just condemn someone you know and presumably care about to... whatever he's in, either.
> saba! [Saba]: so im used to being the bad guy here
> saba!: its not what i like being but someone has to be
> saba!: but given our resources situation and the neumono issue mentioned
> saba!: im going to have to argue against waking this dude up
> saba!: but im also not the one in charge so i say we put it to a vote
> saba!: an emergency vote so we dont leave sisirri hanging in whatever fucked up limbo is down there
> saba!: lemme message sits
> Megalith [Sitkva]: Already here, just reading up.
> Megalith: Agreed on the vote. Sending out a system notification now.

The shrill beep makes me jump. It's eerie down here, okay.

> 1045: Do I get to vote?
> saba!: dont see why not, we gave you a login
> saba!: far as im concerned that makes you a real person

There's another agonising five minutes, and then a bloop.

> -- VoxNet announcement: Poll concluded. Result: 4 votes for yes, 4 votes for no, 1 abstain. -- <
> saba!: what the fuck
> saba!: who let abstain be an option
> saba!: who the fuck would abstain
> Xara [Ekasarra]: Hi that would be me
> saba!: holy fuck what is that avatar
> Xara: Representative
> Xara: Anyway I don't know enough to vote yes or no
> Xara: Another salikai not bad, but another bad salikai would be very bad
> Xara: Sorry for weird typing, swiping keyboard not good with pneumonic hand
> Xara: Pneumonic
> Xara: Pneumonic
> Xara: New monosodium
> Machinist: Wait, I didn't vote yet.
> saba!: then the decision is in your graspers
> saba!: weve expressed some of our concerns and we dont all think its a good idea
> saba!: but ultimately its your choice
> saba!: and were due a calamity about now anyway its been real quiet lately
> Machinist: ...I will free him. Tirzi, please get a healing gel tub ready.
> LessEdgyThanYou: Yeah yeah I'm already on my way. I'll get Aza to prep an emergency responder drone too.
> Machinist: Oh, right. I have a locator chip in my eye, can any of you locate me?
> CybLux: you are being small distance underground but off any map i am having of facility
> CybLux: we are needing mapping expedition soon
> CybLux: please looking at as many things as you can manage while down there without getting into trouble?
> Machinist: I'll try.
> Machinist: Also, there's other entities locked in stasis here. I'm trying to gather more information before I even consider freeing any of them, but if anything goes wrong, be forewarned.
> CybLux: interesting
> CybLux: getting informations please
> Megalith: Agreed.
> saba!: you are on thin ice for randomly introducing more people into this place
> Machinist: I was referring to the possibility of accidents.
> saba!: yeah youre on thin ice for that too
> FrontierLibrarian [Ku Gat]: She can't be held accountable for everything that goes wrong. I've been noticing anomalous events and readings happening with alarmingly accelerating frequency. Something is meddling with us and it doesn't want us to look at it directly.
> saba!: were being toyed with on all fronts
> saba!: all i know is i aint a toy so fuck you star gods come at me
> saba!: enough with this vague working in the shadows come and fight me
> LessEdgyThanYou: Settle down, Saba.

Okay if I don't get back to doing what I came down here for soon I am going to lose the entire day listening in on this conversation.

3/7 Sisirri 2018/12/09(Sun)14:50 No. 913546 ID: 221205
File 154439582053.png - (19.50KB , 800x600 , salq3-15.png )

We return to the cell chamber.

~i trust you have reached your decision.~
"Yes."
~i neglected to mention before that there are automated safety measures to prevent a cascading breach scenario.~
"A what?"
~a prison break.~
"...what are these 'safety measures'?"
~releasing one prisoner will not trigger them. releasing more than one within the same... converting... one month period, however, might. there are overrides, but i am not able to access them, nor am i permitted to instruct others on how to access them within my stead. i have been in existence for long enough that my envoy geas has lapsed and i am now operating on a general aide geas. i am able to act on more, but i am slowly gaining more and more restriction as the facility recognises what i have become. more concerning, i believe i am becoming... less comfortable with cessation.~
"That doesn't sound bad."
~you have had a fear of your own mortality hardwired into your being since your conception. this is a new and troubling sensation for me, but i suppose it is letting me understand the hubris of my creators in more than an intellectual capacity. it does not matter, i assume the existential terror fades.~
"Uhh... yes."
~that did not sound very certain.~
"Yes. Yes, it fades."
~i will return from my digression. you may release kitsiksu, but each additional prisoner released constitutes a rapidly escalating risk of the prison systems assuming a cascading breach scenario is in progress. i do not have sufficient access to the defense network of the facility as the defenses are kept within an isolated matrix, but i would caution against releasing more than kitsiksu and, at best, one other.~
"Why do you think I want to release the other prisoners?"
~subtle microexpressions observed while i listed the manifest.~
"...you can read me like that so quickly?"
~no, but i can manipulate an alien into confirming a hypothesis.~

I just... I just got outwitted by a floating lightbulb.
I don't know what part of me hurts right now but it does.

"I might have been considering it, yes. Regardless. Kitsiksu."

The pod floats over.

"I'm authorizing release of... uh..."
~prisoner 10205.~
"Right. I'm authorizing release of prisoner 10205."
~acknowledged. thawing.~

Kitsiksu starts to slump back into the pod as I hear the rushing of fluid and some muted bubbling.
With a loud hiss, a seam appears in the otherwise solid, unassailable pod, and a loud pop marks the pod opening up.

Kitsiksu is here. He slowly tumbles out of the pod before I think I try to catch him, and--

4/7 Sisirri 2018/12/09(Sun)14:50 No. 913547 ID: 221205
File 154439583944.png - (65.79KB , 800x600 , salq3-16.png )

--he stands up with alarming speed and freezes as he sees me, eyes darting around.

"Kitsiksu." I intend to say more but I can't find the words.

There's an awkward pause before I realise Kitsiksu isn't quiet due to awkwardness.

"Sisirri," he says, less of a greeting and more of a confirmation of fact.
"Are... are you well?"

Kitsiksu stares off into space behind me. Will circles around the two of us, for some reason.

"Yes. Yes, I am well." He sounds distant, and remains tense, eyes darting to the corners of his peripheral vision. "Where am I?"
"It's a long story."
"Your base?"
"No, see--"
"Sisirri's eye doesn't look like that," he says, matter-of-factly, and holds up one of his claws and swings it as something vivid green sprays out of it in strands and oh gross it's on me oh gross oh gross it's HARDENING

5/7 Sisirri 2018/12/09(Sun)14:50 No. 913548 ID: 221205
File 154439585959.png - (64.38KB , 800x600 , salq3-17.png )

I flail away from the spray as it actively spreads out around my limbs and moving gets harder and harder, and I have no idea why, all that's on my mind is running from danger and I run smack bang into a forcefield and flail onto the ground.
Will has encased me in some sort of spherical energy bubble, and before I can even comment on it, it fires some sort of white energy beam at Kitsiksu, who forcibly exhales and falls onto the walkway, twitching and spluttering.
~i had hoped,~ it chimes, ~that intervention would not be necessary, but i cannot abide violence this close to the Eternity Shell.~
"What did you do to him?!"
~neurodisruptive resonant frequency signal adapted to salikai physiology at 2% strength. induced muscle spasms, target disabled temporarily. salikai kitsiksu, you are in a place of sanctuary and protection, and further violence will be met with increased response.~

Kitsiksu gets back up and throws his graspers into the air. "Alright! Alright, I surrender! I can't do anything against that, I'm out of tricks now!"
This is usually the sort of thing he's said in the past right before revealing he has more tricks.

"Kitsiksu, it's me! It's Sisirri! I changed my eye because I broke my last one!"
"So, you're not an imposter trying to get me to lower my guard, correct?"
"Yes!"
"And you're completely, absolutely, without a doubt Sisirri?"
"Yes!"
"The salikai who set a hostile AI on my base that locked me out of all bar one of my escape plans, coincidentally at the same time some unidentified ship started doing a bombing run over an empty wasteland I happened to have my subterranean stronghold in? With no clear evidence of salikai activity?"

I freeze up.

"I can explai--"
"It would actually be better for you right now if you weren't Sisirri. Because when I find her, there will be no limit to my revenge."
"It wasn't me, it was Imp--"
"'It wasn't me, the AI did it!' Listen! Listen to that! 'It wasn't me who bombed your base, it was the ship!' 'I didn't tear our your lungs, the claws did!'"
"Imperium used me! It used all of us and then it threw us away!"
"So your excuse, if I'm hearing this correctly, is that you're completely incompetent, and everything you've ever been responsible for and everything you've claimed responsibility for were all you being the meat puppet of some AI you found in a box somewhere?"
"No! Not at all!"
"So it was you who sent Imperium after me?"
"No!"
"Either you sent the AI after me, through malice or incompetence, or the AI came after me without your input, Sisirri, so which was it? Who was the one in control?"
"Imp-- Imperium was the one in control, yes, what are you getting at--"
"So you couldn't control the system you kept reassuring me was failureproof and that you had complete control over?"
"No! No, I couldn't control it and no one can!"

6/7 Sisirri 2018/12/09(Sun)14:51 No. 913550 ID: 221205
File 154439591455.png - (117.96KB , 800x600 , salq3-18.png )

Kitsiksu looks at me disgusted. "So what are you even worth? You told me all of your best work came from designs from the system you claimed to have control over. Now, you're telling me you were just its pawn the whole time? Ugh, why does this keep turning out to be the case for every salikai I put any trust into? Clearly I'm the actual incompetent one here for continuing to make such bad value judgements of other salikai. Just, get out of my way."

I'm furious. I scrape the goop off of me and it sloughs off in complete chunks.

I throw a claw through the barrier around me so hard the barrier shatters into glass-like shards, quickly boiling away into mist.

"Kitsiksu, I'm putting you back in that pod."
Kitsiksu watches me smash through the barrier with a flinch. "Wait, didn't your drone just say not to be violent--"
~i am not sisirri's drone, but you are correct. cease, sisirri.~
"You promised me complete protection while I was down here, right?!" I yell to Will.
~i did.~
"You can't touch me, can you?"
~i cannot.~
"Then," I say, turning to Kitsiksu, raising my claws, "It looks like only you have that problem here. Get back in the pod."
~there is a diplomatic solution here--~
"Shut it, Will. In fact, just stay out of this altogether."

Kitsiksu raises his own claws in response. "So this is how it ends for you, then. "
"You smug, arrogant jerk, no wonder your brothers got all the praise--"

That set him off. He charges towards me full of fury, and I take a few steps back, brace myself, and
redirect his inertia and
throw him clumsily
off the walkway

...

7/7 Sisirri 2018/12/09(Sun)14:52 No. 913552 ID: 221205
File 154439594967.png - (17.81KB , 800x600 , salq3-19.png )

I hear Kitsiksu scream as he falls off the walkway and that drop is a lot lot longer than it looked.

Oh.

Oh no oh no oh fuck.

I came here to save Kitsiksu! Not--

No no no no no no.

Politely ask the floating guy to save him. Pretty please.

You two need to calm down. All of this is fixable if you stop screaming at each other and poking the most painful parts of each other.

Bunch of children you two. Your Arkot's are more logical.

>>913552
"Will, I have made a very bad decision in anger, and if it is within your power to prevent Kitsiksu's imminent death, I would greatly appreciate your assistance.

"Please."

If we need a longer explanation later: salikai are very prone to paranoia, and honestly Kitsiksu is justified for reacting badly here, even if it did hurt. ...even if your differences are irreconcilable after this, he doesn't deserve to die for it.

No I didn't mean it!

Save him save him! Will please save him for me!

I make horrible choices when under stress! Possibly all the time even!

But I don't want him dead! Just not yelling at me about stuff that I can't fix!

Please save him Will. I care for him very much. Even if he hates me forever for my stupid mistakes I don't want him hurt.

aaaa
Are you fuckin kidding me!

Beg Will to save him, if that's still an option. D:

If Will can prevent Kitsiku from the very sudden stop at the end of his inevitable journey, that'd be great.

But after that... Kitsiku only gets two choices.

one: he can go back into hibernation and possibly not die at some undetermined point in the future.
two: he can work with you and everyone else to ensure that imperium is destroyed before it kills every sapient species in the galaxy.

Sissiri has complete protection, she can jump and catch him!

>>913552
Inform Will that you have made a terrible decision in a moment of anger and request that he un-murder your friend, who was also angry.

I think he thought Imperium was your reclaimed AI project that you completely screwed up and let loose on his ass, and not an Akashic Genocide Protocol that controlled every aspect of your life from your parents mating to invasive brain surgery at age five.

Activate any anti-gravity stuff and explain that last part.

>>913572
...To be fair, he shot goo at us while we were trying to fill him in.

"Wait...Save him, Will!"

Apologize to Will for snapping at it and beg it to save him.

>>913552
“No! Will, please save him! I can’t lose him again!”

That many "no"s implies a "splat."

See if you can recover his head from his corpse. Hope you brought some medical stuff.

Welp. Another one for the healing vat. Though Will may need to refreeze him first to prevent permanent brain damage if his body has been destroyed.

Guess we'll have to wait a month to open another vat though.

>>913596
>”splat”
No, I think it’s just a really long drop and she’s just helplessly watching him fall farther away from her.

Beg Will to save him because you lost Kitsiksu once and you don't want to lose him again!

Having tears in your eyes while saying this is optional.

1/3 Sisirri 2018/12/10(Mon)14:02 No. 913616 ID: 221205
File 154447935702.png - (104.06KB , 800x600 , salq3-20.png )

>save him
>save him
>save him
>SAVE HIM

"WILL SAVE HIM PLEASE I CAN'T LOSE HIM AGAIN!!"

As I scream the words I realise Kitsiksu isn't splashing across the floor of the chamber, and Kitsiksu's screaming slowly tapers off as he also realises he's not falling anymore.

He slowly rises into the air, a shimmering blue glow surrounding him.

~help him back onto the platform, it is not trivial for me to do this.~

I scramble to hold out my claws to Kitsiksu, who reaches out to me and takes hold as soon as he can.
For a fleeting moment I'm sure he's about to try and pull me off the walkway, but he relents and climbs back onto the walkway.

~i will require some time before i am capable of such intense manipulation again. please remain on the walkway.~
"Thank you, Will, thank you very much. Kitsiksu," I say, trembling. My graspers shake from exertion and adrenaline. I find I don't have any words to follow that.

2/3 Sisirri 2018/12/10(Mon)14:03 No. 913617 ID: 221205
File 154447941202.png - (56.55KB , 800x600 , salq3-21.png )

"Sisirri," says Kitsiksu, who is also processing what just happened. "You just tried to kill me and then you walked it back almost immediately. I can't read your intentions. You're a threat to my continued survival."
"Probably," I mutter. "I'm a threat to my continued survival."
"I can't trust you, Sisirri. I can't trust anyone."
"Wait a second. We haven't exchanged passwords. How do I know you're really Kitsiksu? What if I'm talking to someone pretending to be someone I knew?"
"The passwords are compromised, your pet or jailer or whatever it was tricked me before. They're useless now."
"Tell me something you know about me--"
"Sisirri Issukoa, age 28, only surviving descendant of Hidira Issukoa and an unknown male, all records conspicuously erased. Proficient with mechanical design, computing theory, some proficiency with digital security, has a mind machine interface integrated via cybernetics--"
"Something only you'd know!" Also I'm 29 but close enough with the time weirdness.

Kitsiksu pauses. "I. Uh. Hm."
"Well?"
"Nothing I'm prepared to admit."
"Well alright, guess you weren't Kitsiksu at all, I'm going to go now--"
"Wait! Alright! The five stripes on your tail bulb are spaced apart from each other proportionally relating to the golden ratio!" blurts Kitsiksu.
"...anyone could figure that out from a photo of me--"
"But why would anyone else have spent the time-- you know-- never mind, let's ignore this line of thought--"
"Why do you know that? Did you just work that out now or-- how long have you spent looking at-- oh."
"Let's move on, right now," says Kitsiksu, awkwardly looking away from me.
I don't know whether to be disgusted or flattered but right now I'm mostly confused.

One more test.
"So what did you spray me with?"
"Oh! It's a rapidly expanding non-newtonian fluid produced by in a special gland I transplanted into myself from an otherwise failed batch of custom organs. Only good one in the batch but they all had some interesting results like--"
"Okay, you've convinced me, you're Kitsiksu," I say, trying to cut him off before he goes too deep into explanation, which he will if I let him.
"You usually like my explanations," says Kitsiksu, warily eyeing me.
"Like is a strong word."
Kitsiksu looks less wary but looks a little hurt, says nothing and looks towards the room entrance.

"...okay, I'm going to regret this, but lead the way, Sisirri. I don't know where I am but you do and to be honest my choices are risk you being a threat or a benefit, or get back in a pod for a complete unknown factor to break me back out of it. I choose you."
"Got it. Off we go."

3/3 Sisirri 2018/12/10(Mon)14:04 No. 913618 ID: 221205
File 154447945282.png - (27.61KB , 800x600 , salq3-22.png )

Will leads us back through the maze of corridors and catwalks to the point I originally came down into the subfacility. We walk in awkward silence, while Kitsiksu looks around at the billowing must and white metal walls, as well as the seemingly endless expanse above and below.

~i will return to observing the activity down here. you know where to find me if needed.~
Will vanishes in a puff of light.

It's just me and him now.

"This isn't your base, is it. What's going on, Sisirri?"

...where do I even begin.

>>913617
You should be flattered that he was staring at your butt! It means he was attracted to you!

>>913618
>...where do I even begin?
At the beginning. Don't leave out any detail, including the number of times you've almost been killed, your strange alien allies, and most importantly, the neumono you've teamed up with!

>"This isn't your base, is it. What's going on, Sisirri?"
>...where do I even begin.
It is a long, confusing, and frankly unbelievable story, even before taking into account our reasons not to trust each other, or our racial tendency towards paranoia. That said, I will try to explain.

My base was destroyed, much like yours. Imperium betrayed me, gave my location and falsified intelligence to a hostile neumono hive. I barely escaped, using an alien artifact I insufficiently understood as an emergency teleport. It brought me, well, here.

Your own attempt to survive, using an emergency stasis device also transported you here.

Attempting to explain 'here' is where the story veers into the realm of disbelief. This is a nexus of an absurd intersection of unlikely coincidences (to the point my allies and I suspect something is toying with us). I teleported here, to a planet outside our native galaxy. You teleported to the same planet. A team of alien researchers, from yet another galaxy was stranded here at the same time. The local planetary population has presumably been exterminated by an insane alien empire from the local galaxy, with abilities that might as well be magic. They're attempting to strip mine the entire place, and something they're afraid of is coming this way. Oh, and for good measure? The facility we're in now is the not-tomb of the last member of an ancient race who developed perfect immortality, but drove themselves into insane catatonia in the process. The glowing light from before is a caretaker, of sorts.

I've allied myself with the alien research team a few surviving neumono from the hive that tried to kill me for survival. We're only alive because the kiter empire is either unwilling or unable to target us within this facility.

Hmmm, for added fun, your bioservitors have gone feral and are holed up underneath this facility somewhere, practicing a religion that seems very vaguely based around distorted retellings of your life.

That's the high level summary, there will be plenty of time to allow you to read over documentation or watch recordings and talk to the others so long as we aren't all killed. Disasters that needs surviving occur with alarming regularity. If you're lucky, you count as my disaster for today and we're not due another yet.

Oh! Speaking of disasters, apparently you sent me a living fufa at some point? It crawled out of the ruins of my lab, tried to pass itself off as an arkot, then tried to eat me.

My base blow up, Imperium betrayed me, we are in a different universe with a group of friendly aliens and the surviving neumonos that tryed to kill me, this is an advance alien facility that is the only thing protecting us from a massive army of insane aliens that have connections with god like beings and Imperium.
Also Imperium tried to kill you to prevent our encounter, presumable so you wouldn't remove the compromising extensions in my body. That can be explained further latter, but basic it's being programming my brain to trust in Imperium since my childhood and I were only able to rationally question this blind spot after being explicitly betrayed.

>>913618
First, get your connection (and camera) going again. You'll want this to be on the record.
Second, correct him- you didn't realize the fall would be as far as it was. Also, apologize for throwing him off the platform.
Tell him you got here basically the same way he did. Your base was attacked, except Imperium outright gloated about it that time, and the only way out was to use a prototype teleport device. It led you to this planet. Apparently Imperium wanted you here, which means it wanted him here too.
As for where this is... well, you're in another galaxy. There are aliens here, and this is their base, not yours. Well, sortof. It's actually a precursor facility dedicated to keeping a single person alive forever, no matter what happens. The aliens here now are not precursors, they teleported here by accident too. They've saved your life twice now.
As for who the aliens are... well... give a bit of backstory. The teleportation device caught three neumono in its range, who ambushed you shortly after your arrival. They decided to spare your life (leave out the part where they almost killed you) out of necessity since you are their only hope of getting home. The non-precursor aliens in charge of the base are also from another galaxy and want to go home, so they are helping pacify the neumono. One of the three neumono is unusually pleasant company. One of them is very much not, and may attack him if the other aliens don't have him restrained.
Oh by the way tell him his Fufa almost killed you. Thanks for that. Tell him he will most likely not be welcomed by the aliens OR the neumono, and he still has the option of going back in the pod if he wants. It's either that or cooperate with them, like you have.
As for the aliens themselves, it's probably better for him to be introduced in person. They're mostly friendly. One of them a bit standoffish.

Now for the bad news. The planet you're on is under attack by a xenocidal galactic empire called the Kiter, and the only reason you're still alive is because this facility cannot be harmed in any way. Will is part of this facility, and for some reason you have an affinity for the place. None of the other aliens can talk to Will or navigate these halls.
Speaking of these halls, there are some of his arkots here, who have formed a cult. You decided to avoid them but maybe he can recruit them in time.

Poor kitsiksu, he has NO IDEA just how deep the rabbit hole he's trying inquiring about is.

Since we're done with mapping things, you can probably turn the recording off before we give Kitsiku the truth.

Albeit slowly, we don't want to overwhelm him too much.

"...We're both stranded on a barren war-zone of a planetary body, Kitsiku. Armed and evidently insane forces belonging to a military group calling themselves the kiter empire are subsuming the planet on a massive scale for resources. The facility we're in is the only safe ground as they are prevented from entry, so don't go outside or they'll take you and likely dissect you if they don't kill you outright."

Oh and you should probably also mention that Imperium was originally manipulating your mother, long before you were born. The "neural interface" on your head is gone now because you discovered it was compromised by Imperium. It was using the device to alter and suppress your memories. You thought your eye was safe but it wasn't.

Planning ahead: let Kitsiksu talk to the aliens over your network connection before you bring him up there. Work out a plan for introducing him to everyone in person that won't involve a certain neumono trying to kill him.

...I just had a horrible thought. Ask Will if the Akashic Vault could be used to manipulate probability somehow.
Less horrible: ask if someone could use this facility to do that. Is it possible you're doing so subconsciously, since you're attuned to the technology here?

>>913627
That specific Neumono will probably try to kill them both regardless just for existing.

Lets start with explaining that this situation is fucking bizarre and we have allies that include unknown aliens and nuemono that both hate and accept us.

Let's prepare him so he doesn't have to experience the melodrama we did.

>>913618
With an apology. For for the circumstances for which you both find yourselves in now. Simply put, there's a lot at play here. You two were just swept up in it all.

>>913629
Idea: we bring him down here and put him in a prison pod.

>>913618
"Imperium was manipulating my central nervous system via my implants for decades, drove my mother insane, and murdered all my friends just to fuck with me, and is currently attempting to release an interdimensional plague that will kill all life in existence. Also, they betrayed me to manipulate me into teleporting here so they could manipulate me more, and then an angry biological nuclear reactor with legs shot its local avatar to death with a pulse weapon. And that's why I removed all my old implants."

I honestly don't think he's the type to care for a heartfelt apology. Instead, just try working with him until he gets in the groove of working with you.

Or until he gets his own act together and escapes, but that's a risk either way. (Maybe even for the best)

Don't make it a secret that you're at the end of your rope. There's nothing to be gained by pretending to be more together than you really are.

Explain that Imperium betrayed you and you lost everything, and resorted to an escape with a tiny chance of success, and woke up face down in the mud on an alien planet in another galaxy, apparently undergoing an invasion, and now you're reliant on the goodwill of some previously undiscovered aliens who have a good stronghold but maybe two weeks of food.

>>913645
>won't care about a heartfelt apology
Sure but Sisirri should give AN apology. She hasn't yet.

>>913618
"Bullet points:
Imperium was involved with my mother and the rabbit hole goes really deep. It will take a bit more to explain in detail, but Imperium has been engineering a massive conspiracy across multiple galaxies to do... something. I am not yet sure what that something is, but there are leads.
We've wound up in another galaxy, there are other stranded aliens here, and I've been working with them to find a way to stop being here.
There is a big Empire spanning this Galaxy calling itself the Kiter and it is in a perpetual cycle of growing and killing itself off."

>>913645
...If he escapes the facility he's just going to get fucked over by the Kiter.

Shit was on fire yo.

Really, i think at least a short apology is in order. The brothers thing was at least lightly uncalled for. Make him at least your friend again. Even if it seems odd to your salikai mentality, you've been shown friendships have saved you more times than you have claspers at this point.

>>913617
>Kitsiksu was staring at Sisirri‘s ass in the past.
I mean, you were both sorta developing feelings for each other, so that shouldn’t be much of a surprise. I’m sure if you think hard enough, you can also remember something mathematical about his ass! ~ <3

.....actually, it looks like he’s staring at your ass right now!

>>913618
>Where to start?
Remember, you said that you were going to try and not keep secrets from your allies anymore, so that includes Kitsiksu.

Start your story at the beginning.

Make sure you request that he save all questions, comments, and urges to shout “bull shit!” for after you’ve completely told him everything.

Don’t forget to tell him how long he’s been missing and how you used to be the neumono’s prisoner, but after certain events occurred, you’ve been upgraded to “Salikai that’s not our prisoner and we’ll reluctantly work together with in order to not die horrible deaths from something even worse”.

>>913635
That is the opposite of earning the neumono’s trust!

>>913645
>Or until he gets his own act together and escapes, but that's a risk either way. (Maybe even for the best)
No, it’s not for the best! There’s no telling what the Kiter will do to him!

>>913652
Yes, do this.

>Where do I start
"Well once upon a time, there was a mommy Salikai, a daddy Salikai, and an AI who hates psionics. Then the AI told the mommy Salikai to put the daddy Salikai in the mommy Salikai, up and down, until the daddy Salikai gave the mommy Salikai some baby juice, and then MURDER HIM. THEN the AI told the mommy Salikai to inject the eggs with anti-psychic nanomachines. Huuuge omlette. Then the mommy Salikai told the AI to @#$% off when she got to the last egg, and then I hatched and mommy called me Sissiri. Then the AI decided he would rather start fresh than deal with someone who couldn't sacrifice ALL her children to her synthetic god, and drove her insane so she'd tear out my eye and give IMPERIUM A DIRECT LINE TO MY BRAIN.

Hence the recent brain surgery. Sooo, on the plus side, some of my Arkots and your fufa project are still alive. Everything else temporarily tolerates our existence as they seek to justify our immediate termination."

Inform him that your collective is collaborating to survive a siege, of all forms but largely information and infiltration, involving technologies and methods that are often completely unfamiliar. Trust is too expensive and paranoia is too dangerous, all that remains is reason and emotion. Reason is too predictable and will make certain our defeat. Emotion is too unreliable and lead to collapse. If he wants any hope of hope or revenge then he will need to collaborate more intimately and openly than he would be comfortable with were they just arkots, but instead they are alien species and neumono. It will not be pleasant and he will need to be far more humble than he could ever be comfortable with. And you have already informed them that he is paranoid, which will make things even more difficult.
Now get in the healing tub and let the ambulatory accumulation of blades examine you.
it goes without saying that you have already informed Tirzi(at the least) that Kitsiksu is paranoid and traumatised and has potentially dangerous biomods.

Start with the essential
"Imperium was dissatisfied with my work studying a teleporting pod, so it leaked my situation to a neumono hive, who attacked. I jumped in the pod and landed here, where a disparate science team lives."

You can then expand on how Imperium was actually in control since before your birth, having fooled your mother into believing otherwise. That shifts the blame on her. You can add that the AI she actually built was loyal to the end, was killed defending your last sliver of autonomy from Imperium.

"You're going to want to lie down. It really is a long story, and you're very far away from any family or friends you had, trifex included. At least we're also very far away from anyone who cares that we're salikai, with three exceptions."

If he asks how we know about trifex, say it's part of the story, and it involves the fufa he sent.

>...where do I even begin.
>>862495

When you're done, maybe ask about the whole trifex vs LNS thing. You probably want to toss an apology for throwing him off the walkway in there somewhere, too.

>>913678
>.....actually, it looks like he's staring at your ass right now!
Ha! You're right, it does look like that: >>913618 !

It's a long story.

Very short version.

Imperium is actually suck inside a precursor artifact inside subspace. He corrupted my mom and I am probably a result of some sort of eugenic experiment.

Imperium wants to kill just about everyone everywhere. Don't trust anything he says.

I used a precursor artifact to escape him exploding my base. We are currently who knows where trying to survive with the help of some friendly aliens who also got stuck here.

There are also some asshole neumono that I am attempting to keep the peace with. With varying results.

I have no idea how you got here but the nice precursor ai in the basement helped me let you out.

Also I am sorry for everything. I fucked up big time.

Also some of my arkots survived. You can have the pick of the next litter to get you up and running again.

Also, subtly sashay a little bit as you go to let him know you see him staring.

1/3 Sisirri 2018/12/11(Tue)16:02 No. 913741 ID: 221205
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>camera
I stop recording, as we're back in slightly more familiar territory.
I send a quick message to Aza that I would like some privacy, and that my camera is otherwise functioning correctly.
Aza sends a message back. [ok sisirri, i very understanding, will try make neumono understanding but can't making promises]

>he's staring at your butt
My what--

"Kitsiksu?"
"What?"

He's just looking straight ahead.

"...nothing. Also, I apologise for the comment about your brothers."
Kitsiksu clenches his graspers. "You ought to."
"I just did."
"Empty words. If you want to apologise properly, give me some answers to my questions."

>don't hide your situation
I...

I pause and droop a little. "I'm exhausted, Kitsiksu."
"That doesn't answer my question," he says, less forcefully and more as a direct statement of fact.
"This situation is so far beyond my control I no longer remember what it is like to feel in control anymore. And, if you want to survive here, you are going to need to prepare yourself to be in the same position."
"Are you a prisoner?"
"In a sense, I suppose this is not inaccurate."
"Is it your AI?"
"No, not Imperium. Something else. This is a facility on an alien world in a different galaxy to our own. A fanatical army of conquest and destruction calling themselves the 'Kiter Empire' are what keep me and the rest of the occupants of this facility trapped in here."
"Wait," says Kitsiksu. "Another galaxy? That's preposterous--"
"I jumped in a pod like you did, after Imperium betrayed me and set neumono on my base to destroy it and me with it. Except mine didn't freeze me."
"We ended up at the same place?"
"I don't have any answers why this happened."

Kitsiksu shuffles around uncomfortably. "This is a far more complicated scenario than I was expecting you to present me," he says. "I don't think I can process all of this so quickly. Other occupants. How many of them are there? Are they dangerous?"
"Sort of about ten-ish, and my arkots. Most of them aren't but be careful around the neumono, they're not very trusting--"
"Neumono?!" Kitsiksu freezes up. "There are neumono here?! Sisirri they tore Reklatu into pieces! I still have nightmares over the damn savage maniacs taunting me with his remains!"
"I'm well aware of the violence and psychotic nature of the neumono," I say. "There are three of them. One of them is oddly approachable, another is... tolerant of salikai presence, and the third has been locked up due to the other non-neumono personnel considering him a violent criminal."
"First things first, we need to kill them," says Kitsiksu, trembling a little. "Nothing else matters before then--"
"The neumono are not the greatest threat to our safety right now," I say. "It has taken a lot of effort on my behalf and the others' to construct a functional truce. We have other things to worry about that are not neumono."
"To pieces, Sisirri."
"If they wanted me dead I'd be dead."

I'll leave mentioning that they nearly did kill me for after Kitsiksu has wrapped his head around everything else. He already seems to be panicking. Trying to pretend he's not panicking, too, but it's clearly evident from his grasper twitches and breathing.

"In summary, approach others with humility, and do not try to leave this facility. For whatever reason, the outside aggressors don't seem willing or able to attack this place."

Kitsiksu nods.

There's a dozen questions I'd like to ask him, but I can already see him struggling to cope with the situation as it is.

2/3 Sisirri 2018/12/11(Tue)16:02 No. 913742 ID: 221205
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I lead Kitsiksu to the smaller xenobiology laboratory, figuring if Tirzi is around she'll probably be the best introduction to the team than anyone else.

"This was one of two xenobiology laboratories, but it seems to have been converted into a medical emergency room. I don't know why a facility this large doesn't already have a first aid station but this is what serves as the first aid station, apparently."

I see a tub full of healing goo and nothing else. Tirzi was prompt, but is nowhere in the room to be found.

It's... odd. I find this room almost calming. It should be filling me with a sense of dread and flashbacks of pain and injury, and it does, to some degree, but I've felt relatively safe in this room compared to many of the others.

Kitsiksu looks around. "I don't recognise any of this equipment."
"The alien researchers here come from somewhere they called the 'superculture' or something like that. They seemed inordinately proud of their medical technology. Not sure how you can be impressed by your medical technology when you have nothing else to compare to, but I didn't think to question that at the time. I guess compared to other aliens in their home galaxy."
"A galactic-scale civilisation??"
"No, it's more like an amalgamation of different civilisations."
"A galactic-scale alliance?"
"No, they don't all get along, apparently, sometimes there's wars."
"...That just sounds like an inhabited galaxy."
"I know, right?!" I pause. "Well, I'm sure if Tirzi was here she'd go into more detail about that but she isn't."

I poke at VoxNet, but it looks she's away there too.
> Query for user LessEdgyThanYou: Gone to lunch
Oh. Well, then.

I turn around to leave and--

3/3 Sisirri 2018/12/11(Tue)16:03 No. 913744 ID: 221205
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--Kan is here with a plasma sword, active, pointing it toward Kitsiksu, who is understandably frozen in fear.

"One salikai to get out of here," says Kan, staring directly into my eyes with fury. "We don't need two. We barely need one."

I do not stop sending emergency alerts via my network connection.

> LessEdgyThanYou: Uh, Sisirri?? Are you okay--
> Machinist: Kan armed small biolab send help
> LessEdgyThanYou: Oh fuck

"What's wrong, salikai? Did you both suddenly run out of words? Is pretending to be people no longer your best calculated option?"
"Kan," I say, "do you want to talk?"
"I want you to reverse whatever fucked up salikai tricks you've done to turn everyone here against me. I'm the only one here who even remembers what the Ashes Astra stand for! I'm the only one who remembers what you salikai did to us!" He waves the plasma sword around, and Kitsiksu backs down into the corner of the room.

"Her name was Leioko," he says, "and you murdered her."

Carefully get in between him and Kitsiksu if you can.

We didn't hurt you. We are Salikai that is true. But we are not the Salikai that hurt you.

All of us were played by Imperium Kan. He spent decades isolating every Salikai he could and tricking them into working for him. And he did the same to many neumono.

Please turn off the plasma sword and lets talk?

Do you realize what will happen if you start to threaten the survival of the group, Kan? It won't be worth the effort to keep you detained anymore. Back the hell up while your bungie cord is still attached to this cliff.
In fact, I'll tell you what I did to turn everyone against you if you turn off that plasma sword. (Nothing. It was all your actions.)

We Salikai aren't gods. We can't summon tricks and chaos from the ether. We're merely cowards that hide behind our myriad machinations, clinging desperately whatever false sense of security and control we can muster.
But we're stuck here. Like you. With you.
With nowhere to hide.

To kill us would only add to the body count.
It would enlighten no one.
Bring back, no one...

>>913744
I see my attempt at planning ahead has gone to naught.
This is the second time he has escaped confinement and found a weapon. I think someone is helping him. Shouldn't there have at least been ONE camera set up to keep watch on the door where he was? I'd understand not being comfortable with cameras everywhere but there need to be basic security measures in place! ...actually I wonder if some of the people that voted to keep Kitsiksu out decided to let Kan out to handle the problem. Kan shouldn't even have known about this.

ANYWAY. Tell him you'll do whatever he wants if he doesn't hurt you or Kitsiksu. You'll make it clear to the others exactly what your true nature is so they can lock you up instead of him. But you can't do that until the others get here, so he's gonna have to wait.
If they get here and don't have an immediate method to pacify Kan, get an arkot in here somehow. Then kill it in front of everyone. Explain that this was the easiest way of demonstrating how much you value the lives of those under you. They are yours to use however you see fit. An Arkot's life is a fine price to pay for both your life and the life of your friend.

Alternatively you could somehow get the Fufa in here along with the arkot. It should recognize its master and fight Kan. It'll probably win despite that plasma sword being rather effective against it.

>>913745
>>913746
>>913747
Guys this is a hostage situation. The most important thing is to make Kan feel like he's in control. So long as that's true, he won't kill the hostage.

Also, something else for Sisirri to consider: she holds a similar hatred for Imperium as Kan does to all Salikai. Perhaps she can use those similar feelings to manipulate him better.

get Kitsiksu behind you and get the crazed furry sword wielding bastard to focus on you and STALL like a son of a bitch.

>I want you to reverse whatever fucked up salikai tricks you've done to turn everyone here against me.
The only "Trick" I pulled was doing everything in my power to make sure that the conquering alien invaders wouldn't kill us all while also trying to find a way home while you ran around ignoring the current threats facing us and pointing guns and swords at everyone who looked at you funny and hindering any work that was being made on surviving and getting home.

>Her name was Leioko," he says, "and you murdered her.
Me specifically? Or just a salikai in general?

if he does say you ask how he knows it was you. After all when he and his hive attacked your base it was because they believed that you were making a bioweapon that could wipe out a planet or something along those lines when in reality all you were studying a new more effect form of FTL travel. Hell he has experienced what you were working on when he got caught in the pod's FTL field that we were forced to use to escape the destruction of our old home.

oh and if Kitsiksu has any more of that sticky goop he might want to ready some more of it.

>>913744
"It's a matter of priorities, stupid. The rest of the crew have realized that for every act of excruciating murder we Salikai have inflicted upon you, the Kiter have literally performed over ten thousand more, through industrialized slaughter of bodies AND minds of every planet they can get their grubby fatmasses on, and Imperium is attempting over a billion times that via intergalactic biowarfare, the end result of which will include the extinction of the Neumono. Unless you kill them first, of which I am dedicated to assisting you, you've utterly failed to save your race from total extinction. So make your decision now: do you forget what you fought for and fight as a galactic hero for the common good, or do you spend your last moments wondering if getting your revenge on me was worth betraying your entire race by allowing one of these two asshats to kill you, your entire hive, and every other neumono in existence?!"

>>913744
Point out that if anyone murdered anyone in here, it was most definitely Imperium giving away your bases' locations to the Ashes Astra and then the Arkots trying to fight them off as the base exploded.

Not that that will help convince him, but it might stall him. Meanwhile, if you can, throw HEALING GOO at Kan, because it's really viscous and might distract him. If you've got any kind of personal defense weapon use it.

Also, if you're not too overexerted, activate your accelerated consciousness and try and figure out how to get that sword out of Kan's hand without Kitsiksu being eviscerated. Maybe you can deceive him into trying to kill you first? The ole 'you know you wanna stick it in me' ploy? Mocking his dead loved ones and claiming that Salikai don't feel love?

Getting him to focus on Sisirri is a pretty good idea. Kitsiksu has that sticky fluid stuff, that should immobilize Kan; he just needs to have a chance to spray it.

"you'll have to narrow it down for me Kan, as an apparent non-person I cannot possibly keep track of the ZERO Neumono I have personally murdered over my extremely short and terrified lifespan."

Why is his eye tentacles? (Are one-eyed salikai fashionable or something? Seem to be a lot of you).

>I'm the only one here who even remembers what the Ashes Astra stand for!
And what did the Astra stand for, Kan?! Ashes stand only for death!

I found someone I cared about, someone I believed dead, preserved by the absurd alien technological magic of this place, Kan. What would you have done? Would you have left Leioko down there, in my place? You would undo this?

...it won't stop him, but it will refocus him away from Kitsiksu, and in the time he starts yelling whatever he's going to say, the others may show up.

>what else
Remind Kitty after this that yes, killing neumono is really still off the table. The local alliance is too fragile, and the rest are contributing to our survival. Ekasarra helped save your life from his fufa, anyways, no idea how that got into your lab.

>>913741
>He's just looking straight ahead.
He quickly looked away before you could catch him.

>>913756
That could work.

But he might be too scared to think of doing that.

Maybe if Sisirri subtlety signaled him to remind him he can do that? But that would involve getting him to look at her and not stare fearfully at the crazy asshole with the laser sword.

"The only Neumono that died under my watch did so by breaching my base's reactor core thinking they'd find me behind that wall!"

>>913741
You told Kitsiksu there were only 3 Neumono, but he’s going to count 4, due to one of them being a Kiter that looks like a Neumono.

>>913748
>Kan shouldn't even have known about this.
He was part of the vote from earlier, so he already knew about Kitsiksu. How could he not have known?

>>913744
"I don't know that name. Tell me about her. About what happened."

>>913768
>part of the vote
Why would he have been part of the vote? Since when do prisoners get a vote?

Interpose yourself between them. Beg.

The obvious ploy is something about pieces of brothers being used to taunt people. I doubt this is a rational enough situation for "we are all the same".
Fighting a neumono with a weapon is a bad prospect, and we have no robots here.
Again, a lack of rationality suggests that "Imperium killed The Ashes Astra" won't persuade before things get to murdery violence.
Begging for the life of another is potentially shocking, fast, and might just coincide with something from the Ashes' fall.
And that is about as much soulless social dissection as I can manage. Team Evil Forever!

>>913774
Begging?! That's out of the question. Remember, Kitsiksu is watching. He will be judging how well Sisirri handles this situation.

Remember one thing. You don't need to defeat Kan. You only need to stall him until reinforcements arrive.

Get him talking about Leioko. He wants to be judge, jury, and executioner, and we can afford to let him pretend to be the first two. Ask who she was. Ask what happened to her. When he describes it, act suitably horrified. Ask if he had to endure her empathy when it happened. Ask who the salikai who did it was. Ask any question that won't anger him to stall for time.

If he gets violent before reinforcements arrive, your graspers can grab his wrist from multiple angles at a time. Feint from one direction, and grab from another. He'll kick and punch, but it's better than being sliced up by the plasma sword. If you can twist the sword out of his hand, grab the rest of his limbs, and push him against a wall to restrain him until reinforcements arrive.

>>913770
It’s the number of votes.

Including Sisirri’s vote, the poll results were: 5 votes for yes, 4 votes for no, 1 abstain, making it 10 votes in total.

Now add the number of people in the facility. There are 5 aliens (Tirzi, Sitkva, Ku, Aza, and Saba), 3 neumono (Ekasarra, Lekka, and Kan), 1 kiter that looks like a Neumono (1045), and 1 Salikai (Sisirri) which is a total of 10 people.

10 votes with 10 people, which means that Kan was part of the vote, meaning he already knew about Kitsiksu.

>>913756

That's actually a very good idea. He might be able to cut himself free with the sword, but Kitsiksu can just spray him again and again until the others arrive. I'd like to add that as plan B to >>913784 and push the combat tactics to plan C.

One thing, though. If Kitsiksu wants to kill Kan if the spray works, warn him not to approach. Point A, Kan's gotten to the point where the others will probably decide that putting him down is the best option, so Kitsiksu will get his dead neumono without having to introduce himself with a murder. Point B, Kan may be feigning helplessness in the spray web so as to lure him into plasma sword range.

It is worth noting that an unarmed Salikai is regarded as lethal to an unarmed neumono. Granted, this is two unarmed mad scientists against an armed soldier, and theoretically some sort of insane killing-machine neumono might exist that would suggest otherwise. Still, if violence becomes unavoidable, salikai have the ability to rip a neumono into pieces, and neumono are much easier to reassemble than neumono are. So an aggressive approach to any fighting that breaks out, with a focus upon ripping limbs off, would be advisable?

>>913846
He's wearing armor. Salikai are strong, but not THAT strong.

>>913846
He's armed with a freaking plasma sword by the looks of it and the number of people suggesting that if all else fails we fight him in close quarters is actually pretty appalling.

We're outmatched here, the best thing to do is stall him out since we're unarmed. (I'm not fully convinced that getting an opening for Kitsiku to goop Kan is the play, either.)

2 Untrained, unarmed, naked civilians
Vs
1 Armed soldier in power armor.

Yeah, there's no contest here.
It doesn't matter how many graspers we have, or how strong they are. They'll just get cut off. It doesn't matter that we have a sticky goo. It'll only slow him down enough so we can watch ourselves be bisected.

There are three viable options and one bad option. Fighting is the bad one. It's instant death.

We can stall and hope the others get here in time, we can try and talk him down, or we can try to run back downstairs. Of course, running won't work unless Kitsiku can manage to collect himself.

>>913854
>sticky goo
It hardens. If Kitsiksu gets an opening to use it, Kan will most likely be immobilized before he can attack.
The optimal use would be to spray it on his legs while he's looking away so he doesn't even notice. Then he'll be stuck to the floor and the Salikai can run away.

>>913858
While I concur that it could (And should) be used as an escape aid, I highly doubt the getaway will be clean. I can't see powered armor being immobilized by the stuff. It is, however, unexpected. Kan might be caught off guard for just long enough for Kitsiksu to make a break for it. If it does manage to slow him down great, but we shouldn't plan for it.

>>913854
>power armor
Wait, wait, wait, you mean this isn't the usual unpowered armor from Polo Quest? Ok, yeah, close quarters combat is suicide. That said, if I'm not wrong Kan is in the way of the only exit. If he just up and attacks or stalling fails, the goo doesn't immobilize, and we've got no other exit we're in a real bad position. Still, Sissiri "There is no such thing as a fair fight for survival" Issukoa isn't one to go quietly.

One last gambit if all else fails. Spray goo at Kan's eyes. While he's blinded, either steal the plasma sword and turn it on him, or run past him out the exit while he's distracted.

I don't think that's power armor. It's not bulky enough. That's just the usual external armor Neumono soldiers can get.

>>913867
Maybe. Though in a universe with skin-tight nano power armor I wouldn't be able to tell.

If you are correct though, then spray and run might be the best option.

Musical! Sing the Ashes Astra Anthem. While tapdancing.

>>913866
We have no exact idea what brand of cybernetic tech the Astra had or how invasive their augments were. Or how good their armor even is.

>>913744
Please do not try begging or jumping on the guy with the laser sword.

Instead, pick up nearby dense objects and start throwing them at him! Put all those deceptively strong gangly arms and your fancy new eyeball to work. If he rushes you, run away (or try climbing out of reach!) and hope Kitsiksu webs him.

If you find some kind of face-melting juice, feel free to throw it at him, but only if it won't splash on Kitsiksu. Try not to release any deadly gas or pathogens either.

(Also, please make a mental note to build, as soon as possible, some kind of powerful combat armor suit. Drones are clearly too easy to subvert, but you need tools to defend yourself.

Make sure to add hardwired buttons that reload the operating system from read-only memory, so when it's inevitably subverted, you can un-subvert it instantly.)

>>913742
>"...That just sounds like an inhabited galaxy."
>"I know, right?!"

I think it means they share some languages and cultural norms and aren't really alien to one another. I'm thinking along the lines of "culture" groups identified in archaeological records.

(The distinction probably feels weird to a Salikai, because they come from Planet Genocide where groups speak the same language but have permanent wars of extermination...)

While you buy time, imagine a sheet of fabric and a needle, with a thread attached. That thread is Kan. As if cross-stitching, pierce the fabric and weave the thread through and back again, then yank hard.

1/3 Sisirri 2019/01/06(Sun)08:53 No. 916479 ID: c920f6
File 154679360326.png - (215.59KB , 800x600 , salq3-26.png )

>votes counted
Voting was a mistake.

>prisoner with a gun
Someone must have sprung him. Someone who clearly is trying to kill me with deniable proxies. Unacceptable.

>eye tentacles
I do need to ask him about it but not now.

>talk him down/distract him
"Kan, I will do whatever you want. Let's just talk about this. Who was Leioko?"

> CybLux: cavelicker broke my surveillance
> CybLux: camera is showing him still in cell
> CybLux: am FURIOUS
> CybLux: has had too many extra chances
> CybLux: still he is having cybernetics
> CybLux: time to showing why is bad idea


"Leioko..."

Kan falters for a moment. Kitsiksu tenses ready to... either pounce on Kan, which he should know is a bad idea, or dart away, which might be better.

"Leioko was my world, salikai. I won't sully her memory for your convenience."
"I'm not a god or a demon, Kan. I can't just wave my graspers and end the lives of neumono. No salikai can."
"The Splicer took her from me, and you are the Splicer," says Kan, shaking slightly. "In words and actions, you are the Splicer. In less than two weeks, you've coerced everyone around you into thinking you're on their side, but I can see the strings, salikai, I can see the tapestry you weave to bind everyone together and I'm not letting it happen again!!"

Kan takes a step forward and halts, seemingly frozen in place.

> CybLux: not understanding interface at all
> Machinist: Interface??
> CybLux: access running deep
> CybLux: scary deep
> CybLux: not understanding

Of course. Of course of course. I forget. I have a new functioning mind machine interface with further safeguards.
A new eye that I have looked through, but not yet seen through.
And I've worked with the sort of technology implanted into these neumono before.

> Machinist: I'll try.
> CybLux: try what


I inhale deeply, and exhale.
Focus.
Fugue.

2/3 Sisirri 2019/01/06(Sun)08:53 No. 916480 ID: c920f6
File 154679363276.png - (130.08KB , 800x600 , salq3-27.png )

It looks like the upgrades worked.

As one eye stares at Kan, my other eye sees through the veil of physical matter to the realm of digital cognition around us.
Kan's mind machine interface, not removed like Lekka's nor Ekasarra's.
Exposed. Vulnerable.

But that was the point, wasn't it, mother?
To be an emergency access point, an intentional weakness for either yourself or Imperium to use as they saw fit.
Unfortunately, it's a liability.

Because something else is getting to it first.

My racing mind already begins to tire from the strain of processing two layers of reality at once.
I try to focus on and extract the origin of the datastreams pouring into Kan's neural interface.
Here. There is no external threat. There's something coming from--

It's Aza. I already knew Aza was trying to break into Kan's implants. Okay, mislead.
Turn back, try again.

No. Wait. It's Aza, but it's... Aza, twice.
Two streams from the same origin point.

> Machinist: Aza, someone is breaking into Kan's implants from your access point.
> CybLux: what
> CybLux: impossible
> CybLux: am only one here
> CybLux: will powering off console


As Aza's console goes dead, so too do both of the connections.
In waking reality, Kan abruptly jabs forward with the plasma sword into empty air like a violent spasm, as he barks in surprise.

Kitsiksu backs up against a corner and rears up with claws ready to strike.

A connection comes back. This time, an access point claiming to be from Ku's personal network.

> Machinist: Ku, shut down your network connections!
> Machinist: Your systems are being used as a proxy to manipulate Kan!

No response. Probably because he's on his way physically to deal with Kan instead. Orrrr he's a traitor and is purposefully trying to get me killed.
One of those two.

3/3 Sisirri 2019/01/06(Sun)08:54 No. 916481 ID: c920f6
File 154679364604.png - (32.80KB , 800x600 , salq3-28.png )

I snap out of my reverie as Tirzi barges in with some sort of... claw weapon over her claw.

"[DROP THE SWORD!]"

Kan spins around and holds the sword up, but seems noticeably jittery and looks like he's having trouble moving. "I have to-- I have to keep Astra safe from the Splicer--"
"[DROP IT!!]"
"I HAVE TO PROTECT MY HIVE!"
"[DROP THE SWORD RIGHT NOW!!]"
"FOR ASTRA!!"

Kan clumsily charges forward and Tirzi tries to dodge out of the way but--

BZZSHHHN

Tirzi loses a horn.

"[AGH! YOU FUCK!!]" She swings with her claw weapon and smacks it into Kan's armor. Kan screams as I hear loud crackling and popping, extremely loud buzzing and humming, and the sword goes sailing across the room.

Before I can do anything Kitsiksu launches across the room, a coiled spring releasing, and grabs the plasma sword, activating it and assuming a guard.

Kan is still standing, but staggering around, swaying, struggling to remain upright.

"This creature is an existential threat," says Kitsiksu. To others, he probably sounds calm and collected. As a salikai, I can tell he is desperately trying to assume an air of confident control and power while terrified to his core. "I do not know your laws, alien, but I intend to remove this threat from my surroundings."
"[So this is your friend, Sisirri?]"

Kitsiksu poises the sword ready for a strike at a moment's notice. "I don't understand this alien's language. Sisirri, can you translate?"
"She asked me if you were my friend."
"Tell her I am."
"[Tell him I understand him.]"
"She knows our language. She just can't speak it well."
"Alright," says Kitsiksu, relaxing his posture by a tiny iota. "Alien, stand down, I will--"
"[Sisirri tell your friend that he's not in charge.]"
"As a reminder, Kitsiksu, neither you nor I are in absolute control of the aliens here, and they do not react well to assertions of dominance. They're not arkots, Kitsiksu."

Kitsiksu says nothing, but keeps the sword pointed away from Tirzi. It suddenly dawns on me that he's holding it with a lot more grace and familiarity than I'd expect from a salikai. This isn't the first time he's held a plasma sword before. Huh.

Kan lurches towards Kitsiksu. "Give me back-- my sword-- you monster--"

If I don't try to intervene, Kitsiksu is going to attack Kan and I suspect he will not stop until Kan is in too many pieces to recover from.

>>916481
Quick, distract him with the chance to monologue!

"Why does your right eye look like an amtsvane penis?"

That'll do the trick, should break his concentration nicely.

Get up close to Kitsiksu and talk to him.

"Someone or something is manipulating him to attack us. We need him alive to figure out what is going on. If he attacks just disable him please."


Tirzi what does not being in charge have to do with anything? We are being attacked by a dangerous alien who is stronger and better trained than us. We have the right to defend ourselves.

Someone is hacking into Kan right now from your systems. Someone who is trying to use him to kill us.

So either you handle the situation or we will keep this idiot from trying to murder us.

>>916481
Distract him... by asking him how he plans to repair your reproductive organs!

It's personal, shameful and upsetting to think about, but Kitsiksu knows all of that. It's also linked to his lust for you, and his fondness for your prior relationship.

Meanwhile, Tirzi can simply detach Kan's limbs and prepare to nail him to the floor for his own protection.

"Kitsiksu, I know you're being thrown into all this madness and I really do wish I could have eased you into this more but Kan here is being manipulated by someone taking advantage of his cybernetics and as such he's kind of our only lead right now to find out who's using him. And yes you could say that you only need the parts to find out who did it I don't really trust you to know where the important bits are and not slice through them. So if you want you can keep the sword but please try not to rip apart the only clue we have on who's trying to fuck with us."

>>916481
"Something got into his cybernetics and was able to mask their signal to look like someone else's. We need him alive and his cybernetics relatively intact."

Tackle Kan before this ridiculous situation turns deadly, and hope Kitsiksu doesn't swing at you like the paranoid salikai (Potentially redundant term) he is. It should be safe(r) now that Kan is disarmed, the worst he can do is punch, kick, and claw you.

We need to get that implant out of Kan, by force if needed. Forensic investigation of it's remains is preferable to losing personnel.

>>916481
Go grab Kan. He's unarmed now and you are Salikai, you are strong. You have Tirzi's help even if you're not strong enough on your own.
Then explain that someone or something is manipulating Kan via his implants. Ask where the new alien is being kept. Either she was a trojan horse and you missed the robot hidden on her, or she's a trained spy that fooled all of you.
Well, it's that or Ku managed to hack Aza's console to log onto it remotely. I don't want to think about Ku being a traitor though.

Also tell Kitskiksu that he can gain a lot of trust by giving the plasma sword to Tirzi, but he might want to watch the door. Describe Ku to him and tell him to use his restraining goo if Ku barges in with obvious intent. Ask Tirzi if it'd be okay if Ku was restrained regardless.

Oh, try using the comms to ask the others if they've seen Ku. Request that someone check on his console.

>>916498
This.
"Take off his limbs. Don't worry Tirzi, Neumono can survive worse. We can decide what to do about him from there."

>>916480
>someone is manipulating Kan through his cybernetics
Send a system wide message to everyone that someone has hacked Kan’s cybernetics and they’re controlling him. Make sure you also let them know where the signal is coming from, so that if someone is nearby, they can go shut down Ku’s terminal and warn them that the signal might show up again on a different terminal!

Let this also be a reminder to either remove Kan’s cybernetics or increase the protections on his cybernetics to be protected like your eye, so that this doesn’t happen again. Be glad that both Lekka and Ekasarra already had their cybernetics removed, otherwise you’d be dealing with all 3 of the Neumono right now!

>>916481
>If I don't try to intervene, Kitsiksu is going to attack Kan and I suspect he will not stop until Kan is in too many pieces to recover from.
As much of an asshole Kan is, you can’t let Kitsiksu kill him!

>>916502
>Ask where the new alien is being kept. Either she was a trojan horse and you missed the robot hidden on her, or she's a trained spy that fooled all of you.
It was explained that the Pomi’s implants were already removed and she’s supposed to be in recovery right now.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if the implants that were removed are what’s responsible for this by remotely hacking into Kan.

"Take his legs. He'll live."

Honestly, he is more trouble than he's worth, the other neumono might get upset if we kill him but more importantly we probably need him alive to figure out what's compromising the cybernetics.

>>916507
Yeah, the implants could be autonomous. Did anyone take them apart yet to analyze them? ...I hope that drone that broke through was also properly disassembled and Sisirri didn't lose a hitchhiker.

Tell Kitsiksu to take the Kan's head.

Then after that urge him to otherwise leave him alive, and explain that he was being controlled.

Not gonna be able to explain until Kan's neutralized.

"We only need enough of him alive to figure out the source of the cybersecurity threat I just discovered."

>>916540
>Tell Kitsiksu to take Kan's head.
Let’s not actually murder Kan!

>>916542
No, he's too dangerous. We only need him alive long enough to find and eliminate the cyber threat and then we should properly execute him.

I vote charge, ram, and grapple. Try to barge Kan closer to Tirzi. Activate any emergency signal jammers you have been hiding. You must have an E.M.P. in your eye, spare jammer symbiote, tinfoil hat, or something... maybe that paraspatial interference thing you did to Voidsong?

Any sort of large scale dismemberment will disrupt his cybernetics, and we need those intact just a little longer to trace this hacker. Go for the eyes, Kit!

>>916544
Executing him for his actions while being controlled by someone else is not the correct choice to make!

>>916553
...I have an idea.

Push him harder on who Leioko was. MAKE him tell you about her.

He's being heavily influenced mentally in some fashion and Leioko is motivating him. But he's not talking about her, despite the fact that when enraged people tend to start screaming about those they've lost.

Recalling someone close to him may help him reassert dominance of his mind and body, throwing out the influence and ending the threat.

He doesn't have his sword anymore, so he's no longer got the option of outright ignoring you and cutting off one of your heads.

>>916553
Neither is letting him live after all the shit he's pulled.

Sure, in this particular case he's been overly manipulated into going crazy but let's be honest with ourselves and admit that Kan was going to go crazy at some point no matter what.

And a crazy, rogue Neumono with unknown cybernetic enhancements that refuses to listen and either acquired or HID a freaking energy sword on his person is far too dangerous of a problem to solve with nothing short of dismemberment or outright murder.

And since we need him alive long enough to isolate and eliminate the cyber threat that pushed kan off the brink, dismemberment is the safest method.

and since we're trying to be good about the whole thing the best option for after we've gotten Kan diced into pieces and dealt with the cyber security threat the next thing is to put him out of his misery because I'm quite sure that dismembering him is going to be fucking agony.

>>916542
Ok. So. Neumono don't die from decapitation.
...Usually.
Their Brains are distributed throughout their entire body. Their heads are mainly just their primary sensory center.

As long as Kan gets rapid medical attention, he'll make a more or less full recovery. There may be some memory loss. Their head houses like 30 percent of their neural mass.

Anyway, cutting off his head will immediately disable him, but not kill him. Nuemono are bitches to kill.

>>916553
His actions were very clearly his own, but somebody let him loose.
We don't know if the control is causing him to do this either. It could instead be the reason he keeps stopping and twitching instead of charging at us.

>>916557
They do die if decapitated, though. Yes, their brain matter is distributed across their entire body but the majority of it is still inside the head. And while their absurd biology render most forms of kinetic attacks/projectiles ineffective, it does not grant them complete invincibility to said kinetic attacks/projectiles.

this is all moot, of course. Kitsiksu has the energy sword now.

>Orrrr he's a traitor and is purposefully trying to get me killed.
Unlikely? If he wanted you dead, he had a much easier option- he just had to not intercede with the fufa. Ku would have to have been recently turned.

>If I don't try to intervene, Kitsiksu is going to attack Kan and I suspect he will not stop until Kan is in too many pieces to recover from.
Kan's unarmed at this point, and facing Kitsiksu, not you. And he's disoriented from his electronic connection messed up.

Just tackle him from behind, or smack him aside. You outmass him a lot.

Also Kitsune's apparent proficiency with that weapon means you don't have to worry about him hitting you by accident.

>"This creature is an existential threat,"
Not objectively untrue, but there's a lot of social capital be gained with the aliens here by maintaining the moral high ground and showing restraint.

>>916556
>he needs to be killed
That’s a decision that only Lekka and Ekasarra are allowed to make, no one else. Kan is their hivemate, so it’s up to them, not us.

>>916569
>Just tackle him from behind, or smack him aside. You outmass him a lot.
Yeah, just tackle him!

>Not objectively untrue, but there's a lot of social capital be gained with the aliens here by maintaining the moral high ground and showing restraint.
I agree! Maintaining the moral high ground and showing restraint is what we should do!

>>916568
Canonically they live more often than not if treatment is available.

I forget exactly where neumono decapitation is covered though. Some of the older ITQ's and Polo quest threads I believe. I distinctly remember a character telling a story about hive mates calling her a badass for keeping her cool when she lost her head during a fire-fight.

>>916575
Canonically we have not been provided with broad based statistics on overall survival rates so could we please stop arguing about extrapolation of limited data.

Here's what we know about neumono decapitation. >>/questdis/69824

We know it is possible to survive (provided you aren't in the less than 1% of neumono who die immediately), we know this requires medical care during the lengthy rehabilitation phase, and during the initial event it is possible to die if you panic, or scream, or aspirate, or don't quickly receive assistance to make sure your windpipe isn't occluded. (And does can really seem like Kan is not going to panic and scream if a salikai beheads him?) And even for a neumono who does everything right (per Lukrata's advice), and gets medical care promptly, we don't know the survival rate. (There's always going to be risks of complications).

We also have no idea how all the many high unethical biotechnical implants Kan is sporting might complicate or worsen his chance of survival, especially if any of them happen to be cut in half along with his neck.

There's also real world evidence (among humans) that mental state / mental health can impact your physical health and your odds of surviving dangerous medical events. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume the same is true for neumono (maybe more so, with the ways we've seen empathy directly effecting biology), and Kan is pretty clearly in a terrible place mentally, with his hive falling apart and the paranoid persecution complex and the world around him making less and less sense.

So yeah, plenty of risk factors intrinsic in an involuntary head-ectomy.

>>916578
Yeah, that just sounds like Kan isn’t going to survive getting his head cut off, so let’s not cut his head off.

"Kitsiksu, listen to me very carefully: you are falling for the same con that caused us to lose everything. Same goes for Kan, but I don't think he has enough willpower to snap out of his augment-induced mind control so @#$% his ears.

You hate Kan because you think he's a xenophobic sadist whose only pleasure in this wide open world is ripping Salikai apart piece by piece and then rearranging the reproductive parts as a shrine to Leioko. That is not necessarily false, but you're letting your hatred narrow your perspective. Kan was released and had a weapon shoved into his hands. His hacked brain implant is also affecting him like it affected me. If you kill him now and I fail to get a trace, the intruder will do this again and again, possibly with someone we wouldn't expect, until we're forced to cut communications.

Survival is paramount. Look at him. Look at his hate. Does it look like he's going to see next month? No. And if you act like him you'll probably go down with him even sooner."

>>916571
Kan is not hivemates with Lekka and Eaksarra anymore. All three of them are rogue and it's mostly Kan's fault for being an aggressive little shit when push came to shove.

And as far as societial capital goes..

I'm pretty sure the appropriate saying is "speak softly and carry a big stick."

Well we've BEEN speaking softly and it's just not working on him. We don't have to kill him immediately, because we still need him alive long enough to eliminate the hacking angle. But after that? He's just a pointless drain on dwindling resources at best and at worse he'll make a full recovery and try to kill us again. Except the next time he probably WON'T be full-on crazy and just actually do it instead of stopping to mince words.

Help Kitsiksu take him out. This will help you bond with him at the expense of, let's be honest, a berserk and implacable opponent who has been berserk and implacable since before you first met.

Stop Kitsiksu from finishing off a downed opponent, but right now it's self defense.

>>916583
If he's being manipulated now, what we have to ask next is how much and for how long. If we don't do something drastic like cut off his head, his future behavior sans implants should give us some indication of what his baseline is.
It's quite possible that someone has been driving Kan crazy towards destructive behavior for some time. It's more likely that it was relatively recent of course, like just after the portal opened.

I also want to prove Kan wrong in the most obvious way. To treat him with dignity, despite his previous behavior.

Ok, so regardless of the cyberattack somebody's been supplying Kan.
The 4 that voted no are likely suspects. It's a pretty safe bet that Kan, Lekka, and Saba voted no. So that's 2 known and 1 unknown internal suspect, unless Kan somehow supplied himself. Externally, there's the captured pomi. However, one key detail is that Kan was supplied native tech, not superculture tech. From this, we may be able to narrow it to two suspects. The last person to have custody of the neumono weapons, and the pomi if they had a hidden plasma sword.

It also begs another question, why was Kan supplied with a plasma sword, and not a gun? If Sissiri or Kitsiksu was the target, a gun would be a far better means of killing.
Is this all a distraction?
This actually makes taking Kan alive a priority. Once the cyberattack is broken, he'll be able to tell us who supplied him with the weapon.

Oh, and for later. We should probably wait to tell Kitsiksu about the bioservitors. Right now, he'd have them kill the neumono. While losing Kan might actually be good, and Lekka wouldn't be a huge loss, Ekasarra is not worth losing (1045 is tough to predict right now). He's gotten the worst first contact with them he can get, but meeting Ekasarra will definitely soothe that. Just tell Ekasarra that he's been traumatized by neumono, and keep them at a distance from each other at first.

>>916594
Yeah, those are good reasons to take Kan alive.

>>916594

A few other points.

Playing whack-a-mole with the cyberattack signals will get us nowhere. Does Aza have some sort of wireless radio jammer?

Kan's got robot arms, so cutting those off shouldn't "hurt," though Tirzi's hit may have already disabled them, given the noises the hit made.

Either way, Kan's obviously weakened, so Kitsiksu's spray may be sufficient to restrain him, or at least make it easy to restrain him.

For irony points, we may want to say "We can't get answers out of a dead body, Kitsiksu" somewhere in the conversation. The very words that stopped Kan from killing Sissiri, used to save Kan. It might manipulate him into questioning himself, but even if it doesn't, it'll be worth it just for the look on his face.

>>916588
And then he shoves our "superiority" down our throat with a huge sideorder of death.

I'm gonna pass on that meal, thank you very much. Disable him, flush out the cyber security threat and then move on it to eliminating problems before they come back and bite us in the ass.

>>916605
>Kan's got robot arms, so cutting those off shouldn't "hurt," though Tirzi's hit may have already disabled them, given the noises the hit made.
Literally disarming him would definitely decrease how much of a threat he is.

After we take care of the hacker, we can either reattach them after improving the security in his cybernetics or we can remove all of his cybernetics and have 1045 do the same thing he did to Ekasarra and regrow all of Kan’s body and he won’t have any cybernetics to get hacked in the future.

>>916614
>death
Uh what? What did you think I was suggesting, exactly? To not do anything to him at all?

>kill Kan or don't kill him?
If he was doing this of his own free will, then I'd say kill him. But since he's not doing this of his own free will, it would be like killing him for someone's actions.

So I say, no, don't kill him.

Just cut off his robotic arms and he'll be unable to do anything.

>>916646
Any less-than-lethal means or options for disabling Kan aren't going to work indefinitely. Sooner or later, he's going to be a problem.

And unless we're very VERY lucky, it'll be a problem because he beat/escaped whatever method was used to contain him.

And then he'll probably try to kill everyone. And we're not going to see it coming because he won't actually be as much of a crazy, distracted mess.

So the question then becomes, how much blood are you willing to see spilled to keep him alive? Personally, I'm voting for none. He already chopped off one of Tirzi's horns and if it wasn't for us keeping him talking long enough for things to happen as they did, he'd have split us and Kitsiksu in half from head to tail.

>>916697
Bullshit.

>>916697
Bullshit.

He is dangerous and antagonistic, but only marginally so now that he is unarmed. These are exactly the qualities that will make preserving his life noteworthy to our allies, who are largely nonviolent by preference. Also, he has largely burned his bridges here with this attack. His containment from now on is likely to be far more secure and if any resources are available a psychological profiling and correction campaign will likely be administered even without our own intercession. If he were armed, then killing him would be justified, but as it stands, the risk is largely limited to a stay in the healing bath, and the gain is an almost unassailable political position.

>>916716
Exactly.

So all this moral debate is fascinating but exactly what quick action are we going to take when shit hit's the fan in about two seconds?

>>916722
"Kit, go for the arms! Don't worry Tirzi, they grow back!"

>>916728
They’re robotic, they won’t grow back.

>>916729
His real ones will.

>>916730
Not if the cuts are made well after where the cybernetics begin.

>>916728
I second this.

>>916730
His arms are completely robotic. They won’t grow back if they’re cut off, they can only be reattached.

>>916736
Then they can be reattached. Either way, arms are the best target for nonlethal takedown.

>>916741
Sure, they can be reattached, but we’re not gonna do that anytime soon.

Two nore theories as to who's controlling Kan, not involving one of the aliens:
1)The implant in the Pomi might be a wireless machine interface, allowing her to hack into our systems from sickbay. Was it removed yet?
2)There might be some way we're getting hacked from outside the facility. The facility prevents hostile forces from affecting or entering the facility, but we already know it doesn't jam *everything*. Some psychic noise gets through, so maybe some wireless frequency can too?

I honestly find it very strange that any organic mind was able to get past the info-security expert's security. It's almost like Imperium is already here.

1/3 Sisirri 2019/01/12(Sat)14:25 No. 917396 ID: c920f6
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>decapitate him
Even if it wouldn't kill him outright, the resources and urgency required to keep him from dying make this course of action needlessly wasteful.

>JUST TACKLE HIM
I tackle Kan down to the ground. It's... surprisingly simple, all things considered.

Kitsiksu flinches back, not expecting me to suddenly be in target range.

"Sisirri, what are you doing?!"
"Demonstrating a point."

Kan struggles erratically within my grasp, but is fighting both me and whatever else is trying to puppeteer him.

"MAKE IT STOP, SALIKAI! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING BUT STOP IT!!"

He's still furious, but I think I recognise neumono fear at this point. Probably.

"It's not me, but I can stop it."
"Sisirri, why are you talking to the neumono and not killing it?!" Kitsiksu brings the sword into a guard stance and keeps his distance, circling to a more advantageous position.
"We can't get answers out of a dead body, Kitsiksu," I say, as I try to wrestle the helmet of Kan's armour off. Whatever Tirzi did apparently disrupted its powered operation, and the locks and seals are half disengaged.

It rips off with an entirely too familiar sound of mechanisms breaking, and I wince. I've associated that sound with losing something of value.

Kan doesn't say anything and clearly misses my subtle reference to the words that stopped him in his tracks before. He just stares up into my eyes, anger and fury melting into terror and panic.

"M-my helmet!! NO!!"
"Hold still."
"I won't betray my hive-- AAGH!!"

2/3 Sisirri 2019/01/12(Sat)14:25 No. 917397 ID: c920f6
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I shove a claw into his forehead and fumble around to severing the implant and tearing it out. Kitsiksu and Tirzi both recoil at the overwhelming screams of pain Kan makes, while I continue. Tirzi looks upset at being subjected to the extreme pain of another living thing, while Kitsiksu just looks upset at the sheer volume of noise being produced.
As for me, well, this is far too cathartic for the screams to bother me.

By the time I rip the hexagonal implant out, with a forest of wires trailing through Kan's body joining it, I'm left with the implant and more trailing wires thinner than neumono hair than I know what to do with.

Kan is a broken wreck of a neumono on the floor, bleeding, gasping for breath as his screams die down to pitiful groans.

Tirzi nods. "[S-so it's over now, r-right?]" She looks at me apprehensively, weapon-claw twitching a little.
I nod wordlessly, and stare at the bloody implant I've retrieved. I can still tell commands are being relayed to it, even though nothing is now accepting those commands.

3/3 Sisirri 2019/01/12(Sat)14:25 No. 917399 ID: c920f6
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Kan struggles onto his back, looking at me as hatefully as he can muster.

"Don't," I say, incredibly sick of his aggression by now. "Just stay down. It's over."

Kan stares, panting in agony, and flops back, and... starts sobbing. That was not a reaction I was expecting.

Kitsiksu remains on guard as though expecting this broken neumono to suddenly leap up. To continue proving my point that this neumono is no longer a threat, I rest one claw on his unpowered armour.

"They're gone, they're all gone, and you don't even have the decency to kill me," he sobs. "There's nothing left for me! Everyone I loved is either dead and gone or they'd never take me back! I keep trying and trying and you just keep stripping bits of me away and locking me in cells! One of you fucking kill me already!"

He just breaks down into hysterical sobs after that, slowly clutching at the bleeding hole where his implant used to be.

I rip more of the armour off of him, and he wasn't wearing much under it. The ruined remnants of my attempts to remove his armor are strewn around. Strange. I don't remember ruining them quite that much myself. Some sort of automatic self-destruction to prevent reverse engineering? Who made these suits? It clearly can't have been neumono engineering.

Kan's beyond words now, just wracked with misery and pain. I look at Kitsiksu. Kitsiksu looks to me, and looks to the neumono, and after a few seconds of visible contemplation deactivates the plasma sword.
"Existential threat, hm," I say to Kitsiksu.

I give Kan a kick for good measure. It does not make him cry any more nor any less. Tirzi winces. Kitsiksu looks simultaneously impressed and annoyed.

Somebody messed him and his hive up but good. It's probably imperium again.

Lets get him somewhere to heal. Preferably with his hive mates.

Give him to Tirze I guess and I guess go looking like not who was controlling him

>>917399
Seems like it was no coincidence that they were the hive that attacked you.
Also let Tirzi in on the secret- he was being controlled remotely through his implant. How strongly, how deeply, and for how long, you cannot say. It's also uncertain where the connection originated since it seemed to bounce between consoles. Possibly an indirect connection hijacking the network? The aliens should know their own computers better than you, but you will help track down the intruder.

As for Kan, I think only the other neumono can fairly decide his fate. They need to be informed of the implant's true nature as well, of course.

Also apologize to Tirzi that she had to see that. You understand her point of view enough that you know it was unpleasant for her. If she asks what you felt, tell her you didn't really care since Kan has been so hostile to you for so long.

I think you should take the disassembled power armor for research! Spoils of war, heh. Maybe you can repair it, or just use the materials as armor plating for a robot.

>They're gone, they're gone
>One of you fucking kill me already!
"Welcome to Hell, Kan. Everyone hates you, every memory of Leioko is tainted with the disgust that you're not the man she loved, and you're not allowed to die. If you want out then FIGHT for your right to leave. If you can stop your suicide tantrum long enough to get to Imperium, we'll strap you with a bomb. Deal?"

Focus on the implant. You'll want a working trace before the operator realizes Kaninator has gone cold.

>>917399
Give Kan to Tirzi and suggest that his family come help him. Gesture to the implant and point out that the engineering on the implant and the suit SURE DOES LOOK LIKE IMPERIUM'S WORK, DOESN'T IT KITSIKSU?

Tell Kitsiksu to be useful and help you to analyse that implant. With one of you focusing on the internals and the other studying the biological interfaces you should have a better idea of how it works. Try to get Aza a comms line to it and inform Tirzi that Kitsiksu specialises in biology and make be able to repair her horn.
Finally, call in some arkots to watch the wreckage. Tell them that is filled with mind-control nanites and if there are any visible changes or motions then they have five seconds to say their last words before becoming a zombie.

>>917399
Tell Kan that someone was controlling him through his implant and now that you've removed it, he should be able to control his own actions now.

Then ask if he knows who gave him the armor, the sword, and let him out of his cell.

Welp...
Tirzi... You know what to do.

As for you Kit, time to introduce you lets go.

Check on Tirzi's horn. Ask if she's hurt, and if those grow back.

Alright, consider your impression to Tirzi. You've torn off Kan's armor and taken out their implant in a fairly clinically brutal and gruesome manner, and then you kicked him while he was down and crying. To some degree deservedly and neumono ARE tough (physically), but it's not great for appearances. Salvage your image a little.

"How is your horn?" - show some momentary concern for their well-being. They got hurt trying to save you. It's only fair.

As for Kan, address them once their sobs start subsiding.

"Rob you, Kan? Someone was trying to push you into suicide by Salikai, and you all too happily obliged, hurting Tirzi here - not your target - in the process. All I've done is snip your threads so you'd stop being such a fucking marionette - and as to what came before, I've said it before and I'll say it again - Imperium did that. I was dancing to its tune, too, much to my great shame and horror. That is why I WILL NOT kill you. I may feel fear and frustration towards you, but they are secondary to the fact that WE HAVE BOTH BEEN SET UP and currently have to deal with issues far more pressing than our racial and personal enmities. Or even personal problems."

Glance at Kitsiku, then look back to Kan and shrug and sigh.

"... not that it is any of my business, and frankly it shouldn't have to be said, but no-one wants to love someone who's all too ready to throw their life away. Cynically, it's a poor investment of effort and energy. Emotionally, it hurts when it happens, so why bother? Perhaps you'd feel more appealing to what's left of your hive if you weren't, as it appears to me, single-mindedly determined to die."

- Kan is a crying wreck and needs help to regain his wits so that he can be questioned to see if he can't identify anything about how he got manipulated. You are probably not the most apt to give that assistance, although you can probably point him in something of a right direction. Get Tirzi to contact the other Neumono and ask for help. They'll probably want to know what happened to him.

- Start assessing and analyzing. Who - or what - manipulated Kan's implant? Can the same be done to the other neumono (this is of critical importance)? Amass proof of the events so they can believe you.

- You may want to analyze other neumono implants and armor technology. If it IS something like imperium tech, that's a) deeply fucked up and disturbing and b) prrrrobably bad, given that the other neumono have had leave to go around doing things and may have been manipulated all the while.

>>917430
Yes, they do. This was already explained in the 1st thread, when the neumono cut off one of her horns earlier.

>>917433
>Other neumono implants
Both of them already had their implants removed, so we don't need to worry about either of them.

It is rather unnerving to think that if you had not had your implants removed, this could have potentially been you. Half driven crazy by commands and voices in your head that compel you to obey. It is no wonder he has been driven madder quicker then his compatriots, one whose implants are safer, and the other who self-removed early.

>>917443
My mistake.
Express concern regardless, and appreciation for the swift response.

"Kan. Who gave you the sword?"
If he doesn't answer, get close and whisper,
"Kan. Your implant has been affecting your empathy. You may yet have a future with your hive, IF you tell us who gave you the sword." It's unlikely the hive will be repaired, and he may get that chance regardless, but we don't have to say that.
If he still doesn't answer, there's other ways to figure that out, and finding out is top priority. Whoever's been hacking Kan is still on the loose, and may have been using Kan as a cover for something. We're not out of the woods yet.

If Kan is supposed to be in a cell, how did he vote? And if he didn't, who did? Tell me the chat admins have the votes, along with who and where they came from, logged.

We can also figure out who last had custody of the neumono weapons, but that might take time.

>keep stripping bits of me away
What? Who's been stripping bits away? File that for after the crisis, or maybe ask about it fast.

Now that the most immediate concern is resolved, our priority should be following the trail of Kan's manipulator.
We are surrounded by enemies and among them there are many whispering into our dreams. This time the means for such influence was trough safety weakness in the cybernetic implants, making our primary suspects that mechanic faction of the Kite or Imperium. If we can figure out the rout we can secure as many weak links as we can identify, preventing similar attacks in the future.

>>917399
Tell Kitsiksu that the other 2 Neumono are much more reasonable than Kan is.

If he continues to question why you’re associating with Neumono, tell him that not all Neumono are evil and, while looking directly at Kan, not all Salikai are evil. If we’re all going to live long enough to escape from this planet, then we all have to set aside centuries of racism and work together, otherwise we’ll never be able to leave.

You can start introducing Kitsiksu to Tirzi, since she’s right here. Ask Tirzi if you can teach Kitsiksu her language so that in a few days it’ll be easier for him to speak with everyone.

Immediate nervousness when introducing the two people you have feelings for.

Also, make sure you warn Kitsiksu of the dangers of coffee when ingested by Salikai! It makes you guys intoxicated, without having to actually drink alcohol!

Cathartic is an understatement. Can we get a clean up in here and a quiet place to make introductions?

Also, Kitsiksu is too traumatized to think of regular Neumono as anything more than savage bandits. Let him study Lackey instead.

>>917396
It was probably just a piece of armor, but what looks like a small spider-like drone fell out while you were ripping off his helmet.

>>917595
Good eye. Find and crush if possible.

>>917595
>It was probably just a piece of armor, but what looks like a small spider-like drone fell out while you were ripping off his helmet.
Some kind of drone detaching might be consistent with
>The ruined remnants of my attempts to remove his armor are strewn around. Strange. I don't remember ruining them quite that much myself. Some sort of automatic self-destruction to prevent reverse engineering?
The armor's not trying to disguise reverse engineering, it's trying to conceal that parts of the whole are missing.

>What do
Sigh, heavily.

Interrogation should probably wait, Kan is a wreck and needs to cry himself out. After he's done hitting bottom, it might be possible to build him back up- encourage him to refocus his hate and drive on whoever been fucking with him and manipulating him, because it's not you, as you just demonstrated.

We probably need the armor collected again, and Kan probably needs medical attention. And psychiatric help.

Probably should ask if Tirzi is all right or if she requires assistance- she was injured. (We know we recovered from a broken horn before, but we might as well not make assumptions). Also ask Kitsune if he's injured, and double check that you aren't yourself.

Don't push it on reclaiming the plasma sword right now. It's a risk, but right now we really need to earn his trust and if he feels more comfortable holding onto the weapon for the moment, we can work around that.

Should probably hook into voxnet, make sure the others know the immediate crisis has been resolved.

Comfort Tirzi. While what you did was necessary, it was also very traumatic to witness, especially for non-salikai. She just saw a glimpse into the coldest side of you, so itd be best to remind her that you have a warm side as well.
it would also be a good step towards bug lesbians

"Tirzi, I believe this is your field of expertise now. I'm going to go and help shut down the cybersecurity threat running loose in the facility."

We shouldn't just dump Kan on Tirzi's lap after inflicting the wounds ourselves. We freed Kitsiksu partially to take the burden of medic off of Tirzi's shoulders so how about we make that clear right now? Ask Kitsiksu to help with Kan's recuperation, mention to Tirzi that she probably doesn't trust him yet so she's free to observe his work. Kitsiksu doesn't mind being watched, right?

>>917803
Telling Kitsiksu to help heal the neumono that just attacked him might not be the best idea.

>>917777
Also this. Apologize that she had to see that, but someone was hacking Kan's head.

1/3 Sisirri 2019/01/16(Wed)16:28 No. 917987 ID: c920f6
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>consider appearances
A fair point.

"Tirzi, how is your horn?"
"[Hurts, but it'll grow back.]"

I move away from Kan closer to Tirzi. "[Kan was compromised by an external source, it's why I had to take out his implant. Someone inside our network. Keep this quiet for now, need more data.]"
"[Inside?! Oh, I don't like the sound of that...]"
Kitsiksu gives me an agitated stare. "What are you saying to the alien, Sisirri?"
"It'll take some time to explain, I'll get to it, I need to let key personnel know certain things urgently."
"Ugh. ...Understood."

>get Kitsiksu to deal with medical problems

...Of course. A good way to demonstrate his usefulness and trustworthiness to everyone else.
"Kitsiksu, can you fix this neumono up?"
"Sisirri, you are not very good at jokes."
I walk closer to him, lowering my voice. "I'm serious. No one here knows your skills and has no reason to trust you. If you help this neumono, it will demonstrate your skills, your ability to act against your own interest for the sake of the larger group, and it will lead them to believe you trustworthy. Swallow your pride for now," I say, voice falling to a conspiratorial whisper, "and you will have them dancing on strings so fine they'll never see them. This neumono is broken in body and mind. We can rebuild it to something more useful."

Kitsiksu shivers, slowly nodding his head so lightly it looks almost like a twitch. "Yes. Yesss... Just like Sira told me. I understand now."
"Good. You have this. I know you do."

"[If you two are finished whispering sweet nothings to each other,]" says Tirzi, "[I need one of you to help me deal with this--]"
"Kitsiksu can. Correct?"
"I have worked with neumono biology before," says Kitsiksu, stepping in front of me. "This one will need nothing more than some bandages to prevent blood loss and cleaning to prevent potential pathogens from contam-- from infecting the neumono. Granted, their immune system is robust enough that it shouldn't matter, but no good medical practitioner leaves to chance what they can prepare for, hm?"

Tirzi slowly nods, a little taken aback. She opens her mouth to speak before Kitsiksu makes a few clapping noises with his graspers. "Where do you keep the bandages?"
"[...oh! They're here,]" she says, racing to the back of the room. Kitsiksu turns to me and looks at me with sly confidence, a spider spinning a new web.
I give him a wave off as I dart out of the room, sending some messages on VoxNet as I do so.

> Machinist: Kan situation dealt with. Neutralized. In care of Tirzi and Kitsiksu.
> Lekka: Did you kill him?
> Machinist: No. But he seems to want us to kill him. Please talk to him. You too, Ekasarra.
> Xara: No. I'm not going near him.
> Lekka: Eka, please
> Xara: HE TRIOWED TYO STREANGLRE ,ME
> Lekka: We need to talk, all three of us
> Lekka: Come with me, please, you can bring your... weird friend if you want to feel safer.
> Xara: ...
> Xara: Alright

2/3 Sisirri 2019/01/16(Wed)16:28 No. 917988 ID: c920f6
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I make my way to where I think Ku's computer room is.

I come across Ku in the corridor.

"Ku, there's--"
"[I heard, I'm on my way.]"
"No, the situation in the biolab is resolved--"
"[Not yet it isn't.]"
"We have an intruder in our network, Ku!"

Ku pauses.

"[Get to Aza. He'll be of better help to you.]"
"Tirzi and Kitsiksu are making sure Kan survives. Come with me."
"[Okay, see, this is the problem. I'm not going down there to save your friend from Kan. I'm going down there to make sure he doesn't try to make things worse.]"
"Who, Kan or Kitsiksu?"
"[Yes. Get to Aza. Deal with the network issue. While you put out that fire I'll make sure the other one doesn't flare up again. Voted no on this whole thing, oh look, everything's on fire, it hurts being right so damn often. Should never have let any aliens in to start with.]"

Ku storms off, metallic feet smacking in the floor with enough force to send unpleasant vibrations through my body.

Even if he isn't a traitor, which I haven't ruled out yet, this walking reactor is getting to be something of an irritation.

3/3 Sisirri 2019/01/16(Wed)16:29 No. 917989 ID: c920f6
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As I head towards Aza's workshop, I suddenly get a direct message over VoxNet from... an unrecognised source.

> : Wait! Wait wait wait wait please stop please!
> : It's all a misunderstanding, I was tricked!
> : Please stop!
> Machinist: Who is this. Identify yourself immediately.

I spin up the black ice and start trying to locate whatever this errant source is.

> : I-- I don't want to reveal who I am to you!
> : You could tell Ku!
> Machinist: You have ten seconds to identify yourself before I attack.
> Machinist: You have every reason to fear me far more than Ku.
> : Y-you're lying! It's a bluff! You'd have to know where I am-

Focus, fugue. I have no further patience for mind hackers.
I carve through the ephemeral density of streaming data around me and locate a common pattern, wrapped around terminals around the facility.
Isolate, determine nodes, nodes targeted, black ice spun up, execution order--

> : Wait! Okay, okay, I'll tell you! I'll tell you!
> Machinist: Three seconds.
> : I'm surrendering I'm surrendering!!
> Machinist: One second.
> : ZOI! MY NAME IS ZOI!
> Machinist: That name means nothing to me. Who are you, where are you physically, and why did you assume control over Kan's motor functions?
> : I'm Zoi, I'm in a box, and I was trying to stop him from hurting anyone! I let him out because he said he wasn't going to hurt anyone! I didn't know what I was doing! I'm sorry! I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry please don't kill me Splicer please! I'll serve, I'll do whatever you want, whatever, just ple-e-eaaase don't hurt meeeeee!!

Hm.

Why did it call me the Splicer. No one should know me by that name here except for the neumono.

> Machinist: Splicer? Explain.
> : It's what the files called you!
> Machinist: What files.
> : The ones in the comms lab stores!

I... I shouldn't have just left those unencrypted. Urgh.

> Machinist: That isn't my name. That's the name of my mother.
> : You look just like the Splicer in the photo files, I don't understand!
> Machinist: I am not the Splicer. Where are you now physically? I am going to come and talk to you.
> : I don't... I don't understand? I told you, I'm in a box, I don't know!
> Machinist: How can you not know where you are?
> : I don't! Uhhhhhhhh! Here! Here I am!

Some sort of creature manifests within my digital vision as I drop the fugue and focus, electing to just close my flesh eye.
It... seems vaguely familiar and I can't put my grasper on it.